


Queenie

by Engineerd



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Action & Romance, F/M, No Spoilers, Plot Twists, Redemption, Rivalry, jealous marinette, this ended up being much more complex than originally anticipated
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2018-12-15 05:29:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 64,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11799405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Engineerd/pseuds/Engineerd
Summary: "When we were four years old, Chat used to ask me to do his hair-""Queenie," Chat whined."-and he threw a fit if he didn't have at least 3 butterfly chips-""QUEENIE!" he hissed.It all hit Marinette at once: all the childhood stories, the fact that they were both missing a mom, that Chat had recognized Queen Bee on her first trip out, the sheer physical similarities (they were both tall, and skinny, and blond, and oh she was an idiot-)Chat Noir and Queen Bee are twins.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically just a S2 speculation fic with a prologue full of unexpected angst and dramatic irony

 

She got Chat’s call a _full hour_ into the akuma attack. Relieved to have the chance to duck away and catch her breath, she threw herself up onto a roof and hid behind a chimney. “Chat,” she breathed, flicking open her yoyo compact, “Thank god. Where the hell have you-”

“Ladybug!” Chat interrupted loudly. He was holding his staff at a weird angle - she could only just make out the underside of his chin and the edge of his nose. “I need your help, like, yesterday!” he panted. “This guy’s totally kicking my-”

Something exploded in the sky above him, and the call abruptly dropped.

Well, that explained why he hadn’t shown up here yet. Wherever he was and whoever he was facing, Chat seemed to have his hands more than full. She peeked around the corner back down at the street, where she was having enough trouble of her own with the akuma - a young woman calling herself Phaser, who could literally pass through any object Ladybug could throw at her.

She’d come back to the akuma once Chat was at her side, Marinette decided. She could go to him first. It was weird that something would be causing him trouble, since she had seen him take out most Paris’s police force single-handedly before. The akuma was already here, so it couldn’t be that. What was it?

 

* * *

 

As it turned out... an akuma?

Ladybug arrived on the scene just in time to rescue Chat from a set of jail-bars thrown in his direction. She swung the both of them out of harm’s way, Chat clinging tightly to her shoulders.   

“The akuma is in his dice!” he shouted into her ear. She took a brief moment to look him over - his staff was missing, and the ends of his hair were starting to stick to his forehead with sweat, but otherwise he was well enough. “He lost a game of Monopoly - I can’t get to him-”

“Have you used Cataclysm yet?”

“No, I’m good.”

They dove apart when a huge metal shoe came stomping down in between them. “What the-!”

“It’s the giant game pieces!” Chat shouted back, frustrated. “There’s eight of them, at least.”

It was impossible that there were two akuma at once - but then again, Ladybug hadn’t been able to touch the other one, so it was possible that was an illusion, to keep her busy? She watched as Chat stepped forward and demanded the akuma’s attention again. This Monopoly guy didn’t seem like an illusionist, but-

Marinette rolled forward as a train burst out of nowhere, dodging at the last moment. “Do pay attention, Ladybug,” the akuma victim spoke - he was dressed in a suit with a top hat and a monocle, nonchalantly bouncing a pair of dice in one palm. “You just landed on a railroad.”

Chat Noir evidently had relocated his staff, as he came vaulting up and knocked the hat off the man’s head. “Would you just _shut up?!”_

“No puns today, Chat Noir?” Ladybug called. She tried to grab the akuma’s wrist with her yoyo, only to get blocked by a plastic house dropping above her.

Chat dove, grabbing her by the waist and leaping backwards. “I said a bunch of really good ones before you got here,” he said. “They were truly inspired. Board, get out of jail free, monopoly. I’m all out now.”

“No dice, huh,” she commented. “I never thought I'd see the day. Lucky Charm!”

“Well, you took your sweet time getting here,” Chat mumbled, but she barely paid any attention as a smooth plastic tarp floated down into her hand. It was longer than it was wide - it had almost the same dimensions as…

Marinette’s eyes slid over to the sidewalk, and luckily enough there was a fire hydrant there. “Chat,” she said, pointing to it. “Operation Slip’n’Slide?”

His eyes widened in understanding. “Got it.” He bounded off, calling, “Hey, Pennybags!”

Marinette threw the tarp down, making sure it was flat enough before bounding to the end and showing off her earrings. “Looking for these?” she shouted, directing the akuma’s attention to her. “Come and get me!”

The akuma took one step onto the tarp when Chat shouted _“Cataclysm!”_ and tore off the side of the fire hydrant, creating a stream of water right behind the akuma. The akuma was propelled forwards, slipping and falling, and the two dice formerly in his clutches landed perfectly in Ladybug’s waiting hands. “Gotcha,” she muttered, dropping them down and crushing them with a satisfying stomp. “I’ve always preferred outdoor games. No more evil-doing for you, little akuma. Miraculous Ladybug!”

She spread her arms to the sky and let the ladybugs do their work, fixing all the plastic game pieces and the stray railroad tracks and the fire hydrant, and hopefully that illusion on the other side of town, too. She barely noticed Chat slink his way over and stiffly hold out his fist.

“Pound it,” he chanted with her, flicking open his baton with the other hand to check the time.

“Chat,” she started.

He slid the baton closed guilty. “Sorry, my lady, but I definitely just stood up my best friend,” he said. “We’re about to detransform anyway, so maybe we can chat about this-”

There was a loud _boom_ and they both flinched, heads canting in the direction Marinette had come from, where there was now a giant green portal in the sky.

“Merde,” she muttered.

Chat let out a theatrical sigh. “Another one? _Already?”_

“Not quite,” Ladybug muttered. “That’s the reason I wasn’t here, actually. There’s-” she was interrupted by the shrill beeping in her ears. “Hold that thought. Recharge and meet me on the post office above Rue de Garcons as soon as you can, alright? I’ll explain there.”

Chat nodded decisively, vaulting away when his ring beeped as well.

 

* * *

 

“That’s impossible,” Chat told her, fifteen minutes later on the post office roof. “Hawkmoth can’t control two akumas at once.”

Ladybug crossed her arms. “Evidently he can, because I’ve been trying to catch her all afternoon, and now she’s opened a giant portal in the sky and summoning ghosts. If this isn’t a second akuma, Chat...”

“Then we’re in deep trouble anyways,” he finished for her, rising from his crouch and stretching. “Well, I’m going to go see her for myself. I won’t let it _phase_ me.”

“Oh, god,” Ladybug muttered, rolling her eyes and trying to hide her smile behind her hand.

Defeating Phaser was much easier with Chat there, as it always was; one well-placed cataclysm sent a rain of multiple pieces of rubble down on her, breaking her concentration enough for Marinette to grab her now-tangible bracelet off her tangible wrist, freeing the akuma in an almost embarrassingly short amount of time, seeing how much she hand struggled before Chat was there.

“Two akuma,” Chat commented after their second fist-bump. “Hawkmoth now sucks twice as much.”

“We should talk about this,” Marinette added. “We need to make sure what happens today doesn’t happen again. We need a system.”

Chat glanced down as his ring started beeping again. “Well, you know how to reach me,” he said. “This cat’s got to scram. Until next time, my lady.”

She nodded. “Ciao, minou.”

 

* * *

__

 

“Alright, dudettes,” Nino announced, slamming his lunchbox down on the table with a sharp bang. “Time for Operation throw Adrien a birthday party, take 2.”

“I should I known this is what you wanted to meet up for,” Alya said, taking out a container of leftovers from her own lunchbox. “It combines your two greatest loves, Adrien and partying.”

“You make it sound like I’m, like, _that kind_ of a partier,” Nino retorted back. “You know I DJ. Don’t make me look bad.”

“She’s just teasing, Nino,” Marinette said longsufferingly.

Nino waved a hand in the air. “Whatever, I’m chill. So, you two are in?”

“Sure,” Alya chirped. “I like it, it’s low stakes. If none of Adrien’s close friends get akumatized, it’s already a better party than last year.”

Marinette didn’t quite understand how the others could joke so much about their akumatizations, but Nino just rolled with it. “Hey, I don’t remember anything, but I heard I threw a mean shindig.”

“Emphasis on mean,” Alya said.

Marinette held up her fist for Alya to tap. “Nice one.”

“ _Anyway,”_ Nino protested loudly, “I need your guys help getting me to pin down the birthday boy. You know how much of a flake he can be - I mean, it’s not his fault, with his crazy schedule and all, but still. I can host as many parties at my place as I want, but the real work is making sure Adrien shows up.”

Alya snorted. “True, that. He could almost give my girl here a run for her money.” She nudged Martinette with her elbow and winked.

“Hey!” Marinette protested halfheartedly. “I know I’m bad, but I’m not Adrien bad.”

  
Nino tapped his chin. “No, no, you are. But it’s precisely that kind of creative scheduling genius that will help us get inside the mind of Adrien’s dad and make sure he has a free night.”

Marinette sighed. “What do you want me to do, Nino?”   

 

* * *

 

 

She knew Chat was spotted out and about in the evenings far more than Ladybug was - for some reason, it just must be easier for him to sneak away. (She didn’t want to make any assumptions about his home life. On the rare occasions she’d broached the subject, her questions about how he was able to spend so much time as Chat Noir without anyone noticing were always brushed off with a cheery _Don’t worry about me, my lady,_ and one time a very bitter sounding _Ha!)_ It made it easy for her to suit up and find him almost immediately the following night.

Well, she called first. “Chat Noir? Got a minute?”

He’d shrugged on the other side of the video. “I’ve got all the time in the world for you, LB.”

Swinging around Paris at night with Chat Noir was usually calming, but tonight, they were both on edge. “So Hawkmoth can make two akumas at once, now,” she started glumly.

Chat did an easy cartwheel along the roof’s edge to keep up with her. “What are the chances it was a one-time thing?”

“With your luck?” she teased.

Chat scowled at her. “It wouldn’t kill you to be optimistic, you know.”

“Optimism is no good if it costs us a miraculous.” She judged the distance, and then leapt from this roof to the one across the street. She barely cleared it.

He landed quietly next to her (without weapons, Chat had a longer horizontal leap, much to her annoyance) and sighed. “I know, I know. I think what we did this weekend worked, though. Take down the akumas, one step - er, one butterfly at a time? Splitting up would be...”

“Bad,” she finished for him. “We’re best when we work together.”

He smiled at her gratefully. “Yeah,” he agreed quietly, looking down the street for the next landing point.

Marinette put her hand on his shoulder before he could fly away. “Chat, are you okay?” she asked. “You’ve been quiet, lately.”

A muscle under her hand twitched, like he was resisting the urge to shrug off her touch. “I’m fine, my lady,” he answered. “I swear.”

“Did something else happen with the akumas?” she asked, casting her mind about to what could be affecting the usually boisterous Chat Noir. “Or - it’s not something I did, is it?”

He snorted. “It’s not you, Ladybug, I promise.” He reached up and squeezed the hand resting on his shoulder. “It’s my civilian life, that’s all. I’ve been exceptionally busy lately.”

“Ah,” she answered. “Just worn out?”

“Stretched kind of thin,” he agreed.

“In need of a few cat naps?” she teased, adding Chat Noir’s patented Eyebrow Wiggle for extra effect.

Chat beamed at her, mouth stretched wide in a puff of silent, incredulous laughter. “No need to bug out about it,” he replied, looking delighted.

Marinette was staring back at him when she felt her heart do something kind of like a flip in her chest and she froze. _No. Bad heart. This is Chat Noir, for goodness’ sake._

“Ladybug?” he questioned in front of her. “Cat got your tongue?”

She wrenched herself out of her daze. “I regret it. I could have just enjoyed the first day of this entire partnership without any cat puns, but no. Instead, I made myself suffer. What a masochist I am.”

Chat’s smile morphed into his usual teasing smirk. _There we go._ “Your day wouldn’t have the same Chat Noir charm without one. Admit it, you missed my jokes.”

“Last one to the Eiffel Tower’s a rotten egg!” she cried suddenly, casting her yoyo as fast as she could.

She heard him laughing behind her. “Admit it, Ladybug!” he yelled.

Marinette smiled to herself. “Not even if you cat-ch me!” she shouted back.

 

* * *

 

 

Nino was going to _kill her._

“Adrien?!” she shouted as soon she wandered out from behind the dumpster she’d transformed behind. She had one job, _one job!_ To deliver Adrien to his surprise birthday party, and of course Hawkmoth had to send his next two akuma.

“Adrien!” she shouted again vainly, slumping. It was no use, she was miles away from where she’d left Adrien at the beginning of the akuma attack. Nino should have known that instead of two flakes cancelling each other out, they would just multiply into one big late-

“Marinette!” Adrien shouted, skidding to a halt right in front of her. “Oh, thank god. I thought that akuma had got you.”

She blinked as a six-foot mass of boy crowded her vision. “Um.” Adrien had always been taller than her, but he’d only kept growing as time went on into a classic model physique, and it made it hard to think around him sometimes (all the time). “I...the akuma did get me! I think she turned me into one of her gardeners, and. Well. Now, I’m here?”

Adrien leapt back and rubbed the back of his neck. “Oh! Oh, yeah. Um, me too!”

Marinette let out a sigh of relief, and for the first time looked around to really take stock of their surroundings. “Actually - this isn’t that bad. We’re not too far from where we need to be. Come on, um. Follow me?”

Adrien fell into step beside her. “Oh yeah, the mysterious Nino emergency you guys have been whispering about all week.”     

She smiled guiltily. “It is an emergency.”

He raised a cool eyebrow. “You can plan emergencies?”

“Nino can,” Marinette offered weakly. She smiled nervously and pointed. “Look, we’re almost here. That’s Nino’s apartment!”

“Please tell me it’s not another of Nino’s ambushes to get me to appreciate good music,” Adrien sighed. “He can’t possibly have roped you into that.”

She led the way up the stairs to Nino’s place. It was slightly easier to hold conversations with Adrien when she didn’t have to look directly at him. “Oh, please. You know Nino’s on my case about music all the time, too.” She started a bad impression of Nino’s voice as she went down the hallway to his door. _“Jagged Stone is cool, but he’s so mainstream, dude.”_

Adrien laughed as she let herself in. _“I’m not hipster, dude. I’m just not a sheep.”_

“SURPRISE!” everyone shouted as the door swung open. Their class immediately swarmed Adrien, who looked floored at all the birthday congratulations. Marinette felt her heart do the little flip at the look of wonder on his face. _There you go, heart. That’s the right boy, good job._

“And only 90 minutes late!” Alya crowed, popping up next to her. “You owe me 2 euros, Nino!”

“Alya,” Marinette hissed, not looking away from Adrien’s smile. “You guys bet on us?”

“Oh, honey,” Alya said. “If only you knew.” She winked and started in towards Adrien herself.

Before Marinette could follow and ask what she meant, a scoffing noise behind her interrupted her chain of thought. “Only 90 minutes late,” Chloe mimicked, glaring at Marinette. “If _I_ had been the one to escort him-”

“Well, you weren’t,” Marinette huffed. “What are you even doing here, Chloe? Who invited you?”

Chloe crossed her arms. “I’m Adrien’s closest friend!”

“You’re his oldest friend,” Marinette retaliated. “Emphasis on _old._ You just use him.”

“I make Adrien _happy!”_

“Yeah, right,” she scoffed. “I think he’s outgrown you, Chloe. After all, I don’t see you throwing him a birthday party.”

“Adrien doesn’t like birthdays,” Chloe huffed.

“Oh, yeah?” Marinette questioned, gesturing to where Adrien was beaming at the center of everyone’s attention. “Doesn’t look that way to me!” She huffed and started marching towards Adrien herself before Chloe could reply.

What. A. Bitch.

 

* * *

 

If Marinette thought balancing Ladybug and her normal life was hard before, when Hawkmoth was sending one akuma at a time, then her life now was starting to border on impossible. She knew Chat Noir was starting to feel it too, because he was going out less and less on their increasingly dwindling akuma-free nights, and it was actually rather difficult for her to track him down one week when she wanted to talk.

They were way out in the west on one of the city’s skyscrapers, just sitting and talking as opposed to their usual patrol around the city. “I don’t know what else we can do,” Chat admitted, frustration coloring his voice. “It’s not like we drag out these akuma battles.”

Marinette let her head fall back against the building. “My parents are starting to get really nosy, and my class attendance is at an all-time low.”

“Can you take less classes?” he offered.

She groaned. “I don’t think so.”

Chat brought a hand to his forehead. “Maybe...do you think we should try splitting up, and taking them one-on-one? I mean, there are two of us and two of them.”

“No,” she vetoed instantly. “Too risky.”

“I don’t like it either,” Chat Noir muttered, and then yawned widely.

Marinette stretched, considering standing up and beginning the long journey home to the center of the city. “Long day, Chat?”

“Yeah,” he agreed, bringing his knees up and dropping his forehead down on them. “I had to work for about eight hours today, on top of school.”

“Can you take less shifts?” she asked.

“I don’t want to know what my father would do to me if I tried that,” Chat Noir muttered.

It was comments like that which made it very hard to remember that she was really, _really_ not supposed to be wondering what his home situation was like. “Well, why don’t we call it a night, then,” she offered, finally standing up and offering a hand to her partner so he could do the same.

He took her hand gracefully, reaching over to kiss her knuckles out of habit before pulling out his baton. “I’ll call if there’s an akuma. Good luck with school, Ladybug.”

“Good luck with work, Chat Noir,” she said. “And have a good night.”

He offered her a small smile - his pupils got so much larger when it was dark out, their insanely large area only adding to his inhuman look, but it was also strangely cute - before vaulting away.

 

* * *

 

The unthinkable happened during the next akuma attack.

“Cataclysm,” Chat Noir huffed, pressing his right hand to the bars of the cage they were stuck in.

Nothing happened. “Chat?” she asked haltingly.

“CATACLYSM,” he shouted again, desperately, and scratched the bars of the cage hard enough with his claws that a high pitched screeching noise sounded out.

Stilled, nothing dissolved into dust at his touch.

Chat Noir threw a desperate look over his shoulder at Ladybug, his breaths becoming shorter and shorter. She took one look into his panicked eyes and shouted, “LUCKY CHARM.”

A small, smelly item dropped into her hands. “Oh my god,” Marinette said, holding the red-and-black spotted triangle up to her face. “Is this...cheese?”

Chat let out a small wheezing noise behind her.

The akuma victim, the Exterminator, let out a sinister chuckle on the other side of the cage. “Perhaps I should have gotten a mousetrap for you two, instead?” He smiled wickedly, taking a step forward to just on the other side of the bars, reaching forward and snagging Chat by the wrist still desperately clawing at the cage. “It would have broken your pretty little necks, but that’s not really a-” he twisted Chat’s wrist backwards _hard_ until there was a cracking noise _._ “-problem.”

Chat flinched, his hand suddenly oriented the wrong way, and she could tell he was trying not to scream. 

“MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!” Marinette screamed, tossing the cheese into the air. The spell worked as well as it always had, streams of pink ladybugs filtering in the sky, making all the akuma’s creations and damages disappear.

Chat took the opportunity to wrench his arm out of the Exterminator’s grasp, flipping backwards and out of the area the cage had once inhabited. “You want to play it like that?!” Chat snarled, cradling his wrist to his chest and flexing it experimentally as the ladybugs wrapped around it. “Cats are hunters too, you know!”

Exterminator smirked. “What would a housecat like you know? You have a bell.” He reached back into his never-ending bag of traps and pulled out an oversized electric flyswatter. “Time to get rid of some pests.”

Ladybug’s earrings let out their first beep as Chat Noir let out a hiss worthy of his namesake, and pounced. “Chat!” she cried, heart in her throat. _“You have a metal belt buckle!”_   

Wherever the flyswatter hit the ground, it left a grid-shaped scorch mark. Chat was running on all fours, managed to dodge it once - twice -

“CATACLYSM,” he screamed once more, tearing through the weapons bag, which dissolved into black ashes like Chat was a wildfire.

She used her yoyo to wrench the flyswatter out of the Exterminator’s grasp, throwing it away before it could electrocute _her._ It landed with enough force that it left a small crater in the sidewalk.

Chat grabbed the locket around the Exterminator’s neck, wrenching it and throwing it to her. “All you, Ladybug!”

She stomped on the locket and purified the butterfly which flew out. “Get out of here, you nasty bug.” The man by Chat Noir immediately morphed back into his civilian self, but she didn’t pay any attention and Chat came bounding towards her. “Bye-bye, little butterfly.”

“Ladybug.” Chat stopped short in front of her. “My cataclysm didn’t work. And you - oh, god.” He looked around at the surrounding damage, the scorch marks of the slightly-melted pavement, and the still-sizzling electric flyswatter several meters away. “You shouldn’t have done that. Not for me.”

“He was going to take your miraculous, Chat,” Ladybug said. Her earrings beeped again, and she started shifting uneasily. “He broke your wrist!”

Chat’s leather ears drooped. “I don’t know what happened. Cataclysm’s always -Maybe it's my kwami? what do I do if there’s a problem with my kwami?”

“My kwami was sick once,” Marinette said. “I took her to an old Chinese healer - Master Fu - your kwami should be able to guide you, mine did.” Her earrings beeped again, but she was hesitant to leave him. “Can you get home okay?”

“Yeah,” he said. His ring gave its first beep. “Go, you better run.”

“Call me if you need anything!” Marinette shouted as she leaped away. “I’ll keep my suit on all night, as long as I can!”

She didn’t realize until later that that was the first time after defeating an akuma they hadn’t completed their victory fist bump.

 

* * *

 

Typically, Chat calls that evening the one time she’s out of her room and eating dinner with her parents. Tikki lets her suit up and listen to the voice-message right away.

“Hey, Ladybug,” Chat’s voice told her, sounding much calmer. “You were right. I saw Master Fu, and - did you know he’s the Miraculous Vetranarian, or whatever? Anyways. He didn’t seem that concerned, but he was hard to read, I guess. I was freaking out, but he said Plagg, my kwami, just had a bit of a magic deficit. I don’t really know what that means, but Plagg says he’s fine now, and Fu told me he was going to deliver a permanent solution before the next akuma, so it shouldn’t happen again.

“I stopped by the sight and destroyed the flyswatter on my way home - the police were there, and they were kind of pissed, but now that it’s just a roadwork issue instead of a giant electrocuting weapon they’ve mostly calmed down. Still, um, maybe we should do some kind of press, let them know it was a one-time thing?"

Chat let out a sigh. “I’m so sorry I let you down today, my Lady. It won’t happen again, I promise. No, wait. I _paw-_ mise.” He made the tongue-click winking noise. “I know you have a hard time sleeping without my cat puns, so sweet dreams, my Lady!”

Marinette let out a soft sigh, releasing the transformation immediately. “Did you hear that, Tikki?”

The little kwami whizzed out of the earrings and dropped onto Marinette’s desk with a small _oomph._ “I sure did, Marinette,” she said. “I’m glad Chat Noir and his kwami are back to normal.”

“A magic deficit,” she repeated. “I didn’t know that can happen.”

Tikki trotted over to Marinette’s open hand, hugging her fingers best she could with her small body. “The kwami and the miraculous holder have to have a balance,” Tikki explained quietly. “A give and take, sort of. If one or the other exerts themselves to much, it can throw off the whole system.”

Marinette stroked Tikki’s head with the other hand. “That won’t happen to us, will it?”

Tikki tilted her head. “We’re okay for now, but you have been tiring yourself out a lot lately. I can see why it happened to Chat Noir.”

“At least he cleaned up the wreckage sight a little,” Marinette offered. She gave another loud sigh. “Tikki, did I do the right thing today? When his Cataclysm didn’t work, I kind of panicked. I mean, he was definitely panicking more, but still. I didn’t even know if the miraculous cure would work mid-battle until I did it.”

“I definitely wouldn’t recommend it in the future,” Tikki said. “But it worked out today. You were just trying to save your partner. I understand.”

“Thanks, Tikki.”

“And Master Fu is working on a permanent solution!” the kwami continued. “Maybe he knows something that could help you fight Hawkmoth!”

“That would be lovely,” Marinette told her. “We need all the help we can get.”

 

* * *

 

Marinette almost had a heart attack the next morning when she left the bakery for school the next morning and ran directly into Chloe Bourgeois on the sidewalk.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I-” she stopped dead, noticing Chloe’s trademark yellow sweater and white sunglasses. “Chloe? What are you doing here?”

Chloe’s face twisted into a sneer. “What do you think I’m doing here?” she asked. “You need to watch where you’re going. I was under the impression that your family’s business was a bakery, not a bulldozer-factory.”

“I said I was sorry,” Marinette snapped, rehitching her backpack on her shoulders and starting off towards campus. “I’ll see you at school, I guess.”

“Marinette, wait!”

Against her better judgement, she turned back around.

“Does your bakery have stuff with honey on it?”

Marinette blinked in surprise. “Yeah, loads,” she answered cautiously. “We have everything.”

Chloe made a _hm_ noise and marched inside her parent’s shop.

  
_That was weird,_ Marinette thought, but continued on her way to school.  _Since when does Chloe buy her own sweets?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first forray into the ML fandom and clearly I also need all the help I can get. Please let me know your thoughts!


	2. Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which scenes flip back and forth from Marinette to Adrien POV whenever the author feels like it  
> Update: Edited 3/27/18

“Adrikins!” Chloe screeched, hopping down the steps to greet him as he stepped out of his limo. “Look, I thought a lot about what you’ve said, and I-”

Adrien shot her a dark look that stopped Chloe in her tracks, bumping her shoulder roughly with his as he walked straight past her up the steps to the school.

“Did you see that?” Alya said, poking Marinette in the arm. “Adrien just totally froze her out! What’s going on with him?”

Marinette frowned. “I don’t know. He’s usually so forgiving of her.”

“Well, maybe he’s finally coming to his senses,” Alya said. “That girl’s a menace. I sense a scoop here.”

“Alya, we talked about using reporter words in real-life situations,” Marinette groaned.

Her best friend quirked her eyebrows. “It’s a scoop about _Adrien.”_

“And _Chloe,”_ Marinette replied, shuddering. “Not worth it.”

Alya raised her hand over her mouth in mock-shock. “Oh my god. Marinette doesn’t want to know every little detail about Adrien’s life! We’ve finally found the one thing that turns her off! You hate Chloe more than you love Adrien!”

“Alya,” she moaned, leading the way back inside the school. “Not so loud!”

Alya chuckled behind her.

 

* * *

 

It had been 10 days since the last akuma, so when Marinette got Chat Noir’s call she was out of her room and halfway across Paris before he could say “trouble.”

“It might be nothing,” he said. “Heck, it might just be a yellow balloon on the adventure of its life.”

“Better safe than sorry,” Ladybug side, glancing down at the bottom half of her yoyo to confirm his location. “I’m heading to you, be right there!”

She landed in front of him soon enough with a last _thwap_ of string announcing her project. “I didn’t see any of the usual signs of akuma, but-”

“Shh!” he hissed, coming forward and grabbing Ladybug by the shoulders, pulling her down with him to a crouch on the ground. His leather ears on his head were rotating, and Chat’s eyes were darting around almost in synchrony with them. “Can you hear that?”

She listened for a second, but there was nothing but the usual sound of Parisian traffic. “Hear what?”

“That _buzzing,”_ Chat Noir hissed. “It’s really high-pitched, it’s been driving me _cra-_ ” he cut himself off, looking straight up into the air.

Ladybug followed his gaze. Almost directly above them was a bright yellow _something,_ contrasting with the purple-stained twilight sky. “What is that?”

Chat narrowed his eyes. “I don’t know, but it’s making a weird noise. I’ve seen it all over Paris but haven’t been able to get close.”

“Akuma?”

“We should check it out, at least,” he said. “Our vacation was nice while it lasted.”

Ladybug squinted. The yellow blob seemed vaguely person-shaped; she could make out a body and head, at least. “We could watch and wait to see what they do, or we could go straight to them.”

“I vote we get it over with,” Chat said, pulling out his baton. “She’s probably looking for us, anyway.”

“She?”

Chat squinted. “I think so. Don’t you? Anyway.” He flicked open the baton to a longer length, gesturing for her to take her usual spot beside him. “All aboard the Chat Noir elevator express?”

“Thanks, kitty.”

Chat rarely falls once he’s got a stable grip on his baton, so Marinette concentrates fully on the yellow figure above them, her features coming into focus as they shoot into the air.

“Is she dressed as a wasp?” Marinette asked.

“I was thinking a bee.”

She smirked. “A queen bee.”

“I like it,” Chat says. “The ol’ one-two, my lady?”

“Ready when you are,” she confirmed.

Chat nodded, and the staff suddenly rose the last few meters to level with the akuma’s height. “Hey, Queen Bee!” he bellowed.

The girl whipped around. She one of Hawkmoth’s prettier akumas, Marinette noted in the back of her mind. The bee costume was almost...stylish. “Chat Noir!” she gasped, flitting towards them. She could definitely fly. “Ladybug!”

“The one and only,” Chat Noir agreed. “You were just looking for us, right?”

She smiled, tucking a strand of hair behind one ear. “Right!” she agreed. “How did you-”

Ladybug flung her yoyo out, wrapping it tight around Queen Bee’s form. “Hold that thought.”

The girl gaped at her. “Ladybug! What are you doing?”

“Going down,” Chat Noir said smoothly, and then they dropped.

Ladybug and Chat Noir landed smoothly on their feet, while Queen Bee thudded against a street light hanging above them, struggling against the yoyo’s wire. “Let me go! Ladybug!”

Marinette reeled her in closer. “Well, that was easier than expected.”

Chat Noir hopped closer to the girl. “What do you think, my lady? Is it her hair tie or her mask?”

“What are you - oh, my god. I’m not an akuma!” the girl started thrashing harder.

Marinette squinted harder. The girl wasn’t wearing much of anything that could easier be an akuma’s source. “Hair tie,” she decided. “More bee-like.”

“DON’T TOUCH MY HAIR!” the girl shrieked. “I’m not an akuma, I’m a miraculous holder like you guys, the old man sent me!”

Chat Noir paused, one arm still reaching. He looked at the bee-girl, and then back at Ladybug.

Ladybug made a face back at him.

“Oh my god, I’m not lying!” Bee-girl shrieked, wiggling more. “I swear on miraculous.”

“We’ve heard that story before,” Chat said cautiously.

“I swear - on the lives of my friends!”

Marinette tightened her grip. “Who’s that, Hawkmoth?”

“No!” she shouted. “Look, I - my kwami said I should tell anyone who I am, but do akumatized people ever have friends? I have two best ones, and I'll prove it! One of them is a pushover but she’s loyal and smart, and the other one is - well, he’s still kind of a pushover, but even though he’s shy as hell he’s brave and if you take my miraculous away I’ll never get to fulfill my promise to him to be a better person and then he’ll hate me forever and it'll be all your-”

Chat Noir dropped his reaching hand, and tilted his head. “Promise to be a better person?”

“I just want to help you guys,” the girl begged. “I’ll be great to have on your side, you’ll see. I haven’t been in an akuma fight yet, but I’ve been told my words sting like the world’s most persistent bee, so-”

“Ladybug, let her go,” Chat interrupted suddenly.

She looked over and him in surprise. “What?”

He looked back at her. “Let Queen Bee go,” he repeated quietly. “I need to talk to her. Trust me?”

She nodded slowly, releasing her grip on the yoyo enough to let the girl wiggle out of it. “Always.”

Bee-girl brushed herself off. “Well,” she said briskly. “Thank you, Chat Noir. As I was _trying_ to explain-AHH”

Marinette blinked in surprise and Chat scooped up Queen Bee in his arms and _launched_ them out of sight.

 

* * *

 

“WHAT THE HELL?” Queen Bee screech as Chat landed heavily in an alley around the corner, just far enough away that Ladybug wouldn’t see or hear them. “THIS IS NOT HOW YOU TREAT PEOPLE, THROWING THEM AROUND LIKE OLD TOYS.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Chat Noir muttered, his heart pounding in his chest as he stood on his tip-toes to get a good look at her hair. There must be something in there, judging by the way she’d screamed earlier.

“I’m serious, Chat Noir,” Bee-girl threatened, poking an accusatory finger in his chest. “I am not an akuma, and you need to learn some manners! This is why you’re just the sidekick!”

There - a shiny, golden, five-pronged bee comb, almost blending into the base of her ponytail. “Aha,” he murmured to himself, darting one hand out to the comb and _pulling._

“What do you think you’re - ah!”

A flash of yellow, and the fear sitting in Adrien’s stomach like a stone was realized: “Chloe,” he said, voice carefully emotionless. “I thought so.”

“Give it back!” she shouted, attempting to climb up his body. “You can’t just - honestly, you can’t-”

 _“Chat Noir,”_ a third voice slightly-buzzy voice said, freezing Adrien in his tracks. “What do you think you’re doing?”

He gaped. He’d never seen another kwami besides Plagg before - she looked even less like a bee than Plagg looked like a cat. “Wow,” he said breathlessly. “Hello, Bee Kwami. It’s an honor to meet you.”

“Her name is Pollen,” Chloe snapped.

Pollen folded her tiny arms. “And just what do you think you’re doing, yanking my chosen’s miraculous away?”

“Chosen?” Adrien echoed, glancing from the kwami to Chloe. “Chloe? Chosen? _Chloe?_ ”

“It is not a miraculous holder’s place to question my judgement,” Pollen said stiffly. “Or the judgement of the Master.”

“I’m not just any miraculous holder,” Adrien huffed. “I know Chloe better than anyone. And she’s - she’s….Chloe!”

Chloe stiffened. “How the hell do you know you?”

“She will make a great Bee,” Pollen defended stiffly.

“She causes more akuma attacks than anyone else,” he argued stiffly.

“I’m _working on it!”_ Chloe snapped.

Pollen glanced him up and down. “Plagg is always slow to forgive, too,” she commented. “But if you truly know and believe in Chloe, you will accept my decision.”

Adrien felt his tail swishing behind him. “Fine,” he said, throwing the comb back to Chloe roughly. “Fine. You’re a miraculous holder, you want to help. Fine. Welcome to the team, then.”

Chloe stuck out her tongue. “I showed you mine, you should show me yours!” She made a mad grab for his ring.

He jerked out of the way. “I don’t think so,” he told her.

She crossed her arms. “You’re a jerk, Chat Noir.”

He felt a little numb. “That’s fine,” he said. “But I swear to god, Chloe, if you do something to hurt one hair on Ladybug’s head-”

“I love Ladybug,” Chloe snapped, rearranging the comb so that it rested in between her skull and the band of her ponytail. “I would never. _Transform me!_ ”

He knew akumatizations were never the victim’s fault - it was Hawkmoth, always Hawkmoth - but Chat had to work hard to avoid throwing throwing Antibug in her face. “We should head back,” he said stiffly instead.

“Wait!” she grabbed his arm. “Don’t tell her.”

“What?” he asked.

“Please,” Chloe pleaded, squeezing. “Don’t tell Ladybug who I am. You took me away for a reason, right? The reason you got her to let me down?”

In his mind’s eye, Adrien vividly remembered visiting their mothers' graves last week, tired and grieving, and snapping at Chloe like he’d never done before.   _This is the last straw, Clo! We’re done! When I came to school I could barely recognize you, you selfish - mean - you don’t even know how much your words sting people! It’s like you’re the world’s worst, most persistent bee._

 _Adrien, wait,_ she’d called. _You don’t understand. Sabrina is -_

_I said we’re done!_

_Adrien, please! I can - I can change, if you want, I’ll be_ better.

He hadn’t talked to Chloe since. Until today, that is.

“Fine,” he said. “I won’t tell Ladybug.” He offered his hand. “Want a lift back?”

Suited-up Choe sneered at him. Yellow really was her color - the suit looked great. “I can fly, you know.”

Chat retracted his arm and rolled his eyes. “Fine.” He leapt straight into the air, using his staff to steer a landing straight back next to Ladybug.

Oh, yeah, Ladybug. She was standing there looking decidedly unimpressed. “Oh, good, you’re haven’t left me forever,” she said icily. “Thanks for the warning.”

“Aw, was my lady jealous?” Chat asked, leaning closer. “Afraid I’d replace with another bug?”

Ladybug pushed him back by the tip of his nose. “Not just any bug,” she said. “The very first other bug you came across. What’s up with that?”

He dropped his smile. “She’s legit,” he told Ladybug seriously. “I’m sorry to run out on you, but I recognized her. From my civilian life.”

Ladybug raised her eyebrows behind her mask. “Did she recognize you?!”

“No,” he answered.

She let out a relieved breath. “Good. Well...can we trust her?”

“She says she wants to help us fight,” he told her.

Ladybug quirked her lips. “That’s not an answer.”

“LADYBUG!” Chloe screamed, finally touching down next to them. “There you two are. This one practically abandoned me.” She shot Chat Noir a dirty look.

“Sorry,” he said unrepentantly. “You said you wanted to fly.”

Ladybug help up her hands in a peacekeeping gesture. “I’m glad you found us,” she said calmly. “Er - sorry about tying you up earlier, but we really did think you were an akuma victim. It’s nice to meet you, ah… what was your hero name?”

“I forgive you, Ladybug,” Chloe said, straightening up. “I’m not afraid of a few occupational hazards.” She threw Chat another look. “As for my name...I’m still deciding on it. Yellow Jacket, maybe.”

Adrien snorted before he could stop himself. Ladybug and Chloe both gave him questioning looks. “Oh, sorry,” he said, casting his mind out for another reason he could be snorting besides Chloe’s obviousness. “It’s just that Ladybug started calling you Queen Bee on your way over here.”

“Queen Bee?!” Chloe said, looking over at Ladybug in delight. “I love it! Thank you!!!” She threw her arms around Ladybug in a tight embrace. “I’m Queen Bee, and I’m at your service as a hero of Paris, Ladybug.”

Adrien almost laughed aloud at Ladybug’s comically startled look, but Ladybug shot him a look over Chloe’s shoulder before squeezing the taller girl back shortly. “You’re welcome. Welcome to Team Miraculous, I guess.”

In her arms, refusing to let go, Chloe squeaked.

“Team Miraculous? Is that our name?” Adrien teased, grinning. “I didn’t know we had a team name, my lady.”

Ladybug pulled back from Chloe and plastered a clearly over-exaggerated look of surprise on her face. “Oh my gosh! Chat, did your ring just beep?”

Adrien glanced down at his ring, which was displaying 5 unblinking paw-pads. “You’re right, Ladybug, it did just beep!” he said, matching her ridiculous tone.

“I think my earrings are too! We better go home! It was nice to meet you, Bee. See you at the next akuma!”

Next to them, Chloe looked a little put-out. “Oh, already?”

“We had a long patrol,” Adrien added, feeling a little guilty, but he followed his lady’s lead as always. “Stay sharp, Queenie!”

 

* * *

 

Ladybug ran and dove over some rooftops, Chat Noir at her back, leading them in a 10-minute chase around the city until she finally plopped down on a nondescript park bench.  Chat collapsed next to her with a sharp _clang_ as the metal bench collided with the baton. “That was a little mean,” he reproached her.

Marinette shrugged. “I didn’t want to ask _her_ to leave! That would have been worse.”

“Oh, Ladybug,” Chat sighed. “So beautiful, yet so bad at subtlety.”

 _“I’m_ bad at subtlety?” she questioned.

“Just look at our costumes,” he said, gesturing between them. “You’re bright red. Black cats are known for their sneakiness, my lady.”

“Right,” she said dryly. “Because the leather catsuit really blends in with a crowd these days.”

“I’m sneaking up on your heart,” he replied, winking. “Just wait and see.”

“We’re getting off topic,” Marinette said. “Queen Bee. New team member.”

Chat cleared his throat. “Right.”

“This is huge,” she continued. “This is bigger than huge. You know her as a civilian. Is she good in a fight?”

Chat tilted his head. “She...isn’t afraid of anybody,” he said slowly. “Then again - I’m completely different as a civilian than as Chat, LB. I don’t think that’s a good measure.”  

“You’re different?” she asked, swiveling her head to stare at Chat.

He squirmed under her gaze. “I mean...yeah, a little different. I don’t exactly go...” he made an indistinct clawing motion around his ears “...as myself, you know?”

She sat back against the bench. “Yeah, I know.” She imagined herself as Marinette braining someone with a yoyo. “Me too. Okay, so we should find out how she fights. Can you find out when Queen Bee is free, so we can practice?”

Chat Noir smiled. “First we have a team name, and now we’re scheduling _practice?”_

“Chat,” she whined.

He winked at her. “Will do, Coach Ladybug.”

“I’ll bench you if you don’t behave,” she warned.

He clutched his hands dramatically over his heart. “Ladybug, the light of my life, replacing me the first chance she gets with some new miraculous holder-”

“Aw, don’t be jealous, kitty,” Marinette said, pushing herself off of the bench. “You never forget your first, and all that.”

Chat Noir’s eyes widened. “Your first what, my lady?”

She decided it would be best not to answer - there was a twisting feeling in her gut clamoring with him, _yeah what is Chat Noir to you?_ that she steadfastly ignored. “See you at practice, Chat Noir,” she said instead, launching her yoyo.

She told herself that’s Chat’s sigh was from exasperation, not anything else.

Marinette only made it about two blocks when she heard the familiar scrape of Chat's baton landing on the roof behind her. Rolling her eyes, she turned around. "Chat, it's getting late-"

"Ladybug, if it was you or Queen Bee, who should I pick?" he asked. 

She smirked. "Aw, trying to make me jealous now?"

He frowned. "Just answer the question. An akuma could happen - anytime. Tomorrow. And if, hypothetically, I'm in a situation where I could only save one..."

Marinette's eyes widened.   _How exactly does Chat know Queen Bee?_ "Save Queen Bee," she answered. "She's new and could use the help. I'll be fine, I promise." She bit back a pang of something that was  _not_ jealously and asked, "Where is this coming from?"  

Chat flashed her a bright smile. "I'm turning over a new leaf, my Lady," he said. "You know, planning ahead. I have the feeling that things are going to be different from now on." 

She could tell Chat was still uneasy, but it really was getting late. "That's what practice is for," she said. "You've overthinking it. Go get some sleep." 

"Right," Chat answered. "Goodnight, Ladybug. I - will miss you."  

"Goodnight, kitty," she said, and swung away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adrien: Wow all kwamis are such magnificent and wise creatures it is an honor to just see one 
> 
> Also Adrien: lol except you Plagg
> 
> Please let me know what you think~


	3. Queen Bee's first fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Chloe is both brave and sad

“You look better, dude,” Nino said, sliding onto the bench next to him. “Much closer to your usual teen heartthrob look than the zombie with good makeup skills thing you’ve had going on.”

“Ha-ha,” Adrien deadpanned. “And for the record, I think you mean  _ great  _ makeup skills.”  

“Did you listen to the music I sent you?” 

“Oh, yeah,” Adrien said, pulling out a notebook from his bag. Truthfully, he hadn’t really been paying attention, but Plagg had taken a surprising shine to Nino’s soundtracks lately. “Here are my thoughts.” 

“And you took notes  _ again,”  _ Nino said, grabbing the notebook eagerly. “Gimme. I want all the crazy thoughts in your homeschooled brain.”

Plagg’s thoughts that Adrien wrote down. One of the past Chat Noirs had been a musician, he assumed, because Plagg had plenty of opinions. “Yup,” he agreed. “100% genuine Adrien Agreste impressions, right there.” 

“I didn’t know you knew so much about percussion,” Nino said, scanning the paper. 

Adrien scratched the back of his neck nervously. “Ah, yeah. That’s...me.” 

“Hey, boys,” a voice behind them interrupted. He turned around to see Alya leaning forward. “You guys seen Marinette this morning?” 

“Nah, dude,” Nino said. “Sorry.” 

“That girl,” Alya, muttered, picking up her phone. “I swear, I - oh my god, akuma attack downtown!”

“Downtown!” Adrien exclaimed, making a grab for Alya’s phone. “That’s-”

“Dude, chill,” Nino said, putting a hand on Adrien’s shoulder. “That’s plenty far enough away. Besides, it’s been like two weeks since the last one. We were probably overdue.” 

“I think it’s too far for me,” Alya sighed. 

Adrien channeled his inner Chloe. “You guys don’t understand!  _ My father  _ works downtown! I have to go check on him!” He stuck a hand in his bag to make sure Plagg had enough time to crawl up his sleeve, and hopped out of his seat. 

And, well, speaking of Chloe. “Clo,” he said, reaching across the aisle and tapping her on the shoulder. She turned away from Sabrina and looked up at him, surprised. Adrien had done a fine job of ignoring her for the last few weeks. “Akuma attack downtown,” he said. “I’m gonna go check on my dad.” 

She bounced up. “Akuma attack!”  

“Wanna go check on your dad with me?” 

“Yes!” she shouted, following him out of the room with at a run. She paused awkwardly right outside the door. “Er - but I need to go to the bathroom and fix my hair first,” she told him, and started sprinting downstairs in the direction of the girl’s locker room. 

Adrien stared after her as Plagg floated out of his jacket. “Do I always sound like that?” he asked. 

“Worse, usually,” Plagg told him. “Are you aware of how much water you waste with all your fake showers?” 

He rolled his eyes. “Plagg, claws out!” 

 

* * *

 

Marinette should have known she wouldn’t even have time to school the next day, let alone time enough to practice with Queen Bee and Chat Noir. There was only one akuma, as far as she could tell - but it was nasty.

The akuma was dressed in an all-black, flowy robe reminiscent of a nun’s outfit, and she’d surrounded at least four square blocks of the city in a golden bubble that she. Could not. Penetrate. She’d slammed it with her yoyo, kicked it, and even tried going under it via the metro system.  Nothing. 

She was standing directly in the middle of the street now, the akuma directly on the other side of the bubble, mocking. “Oh, Ladybug,” the akuma sneered. She sounded like a young woman, but it was hard to tell with the flowing black veil. “Lucky, lucky Ladybug has all the family she’ll ever need, just waiting for you to come! Well you know what, go  _ home  _ Ladybug, we don’t want you  _ here!”  _

The whole bubble sent out a shockwave of light, causing the ground to rumble underneath her feet. She managed to block her person with her yoyo, but the surrounding buildings all groaned ominously. 

Chat Noir bounded down beside her, tense as he gripped his staff in front of him with two hands. “What the hell was that? I’m the only one that’s supposed to be rocking your world, my lady.”

“Chat!” she cried in relief. “Thank god. Can you break through her shield?” She jerked her head in the akuma’s direction.  

Chat narrowed his eyes as he stared the akuma victim down. “What shield?” 

“What shield?” she asked. “Are you kidding! The giant glowing yellow force-field!”

“What?” he asked. “What force-field?” 

The akuma in front of them started snickering. “Well, well, well,” she said. “Unlucky Chat Noir - I should have guessed you had no one.” 

Chat Noir snarled at her, taking a running leap forward - and  _ passing right through  _ the yellow bubble like it wasn’t there. He brought his staff down hard at the akuma, who floated away at the last minute. “Don’t be like that, Chat Noir,” the akuma said, raising a ghostly arm that black mist seeped off of. “Join me. We can create a safe place, for  _ all  _ the orphans in Paris-”

Chat took a step back, raising one hand to his mouth to avoid inhaling the mist. “You know what happens to people who cross paths with a black cat?” 

“Oh, what happens, Chat Noir?” the akuma sneered. “Are my parents going to die a second time?” 

“Oh, man. I’m really sorry about this,” Chat said, and then attacked. 

Marinette banged her fist over and over on the force field as Chat attacked. He couldn’t get too close because of the strange mist, and his staff throws just kept missing entirely in the strange fluttering of her robes. “I could use a little help here, Ladybug!” he called. 

She pounded on the force field. “I can’t, come back!”

The akuma took advantage of Chat’s distraction to send a wave of mist towards him. He hopped away immediately, coughing. 

She jumped nearly a foot in the air when another person landed beside her. “Ladybug, there you are,” Queen Bee said. “I finally found you! I was searching all over this thing-”

“You can see it too?” Marinette asked, her gaze darting back to Chat Noir. “Quick, Bee, can you do anything about it! I can’t get through, and Chat needs help!” 

“Hmm,” Queen Bee said, reaching with one hand to grab something off her back. Ladybug watched as she expanded what seemed to be a flat sphere in both directions, creating a handle on one end and a point on the other, so that it looked like a spinning top, almost. Queen Bee placed her hand on the golden bubble and pushed - to Marinette’s surprise, the bubble moved with her hand, but bounced back into place as soon as Queen Bee released it. “I can try.” 

“Chat Noir can pass through it like it’s nothing,” Marinette told her. “If only we had his Cataclysm!”

Queen Bee put the point of her top against the bubble and started pushing. “I won’t fail you, Ladybug,” she huffed as she put her full weight against it. “I - whoa!”  

“Queen Bee!” Ladybug cried, as the other girl fellow forward onto the ground. She was on the other side of the bubble, now, but there was still  _ no hole  _ for herself to pass through. 

The Akuma turned away from Chat at the new interruption. “Who is this?” she said, leaving Chat to pound on his chest as he continued coughing. “Chat Noir, Ladybug - I didn’t know we were allowed to invite friends.” 

“I’m Queen Bee!” she announced, straightening up proudly and puffing out her chest. “And I’m your new worst nightmare-”

“WATCH OUT!” Chat shouted as he dived for her, grabbing Queen Bee by the waist and rolling away from a pulse of black energy that hit just where she was standing. With Bee in his arms, he jumped straight towards Ladybug- 

He passed through the force field harmlessly, while Queen Bee slammed against it and fell to the ground. 

“Chat!” Marinette shouted, grabbing him by the wrist before he could jump out of reach again. He looked around in confusion back at Queen Bee, but Marinette didn’t release his hand. “There’s a giant spherical shield right here,” she said, patting it with her other hand. “I can’t pass through it, and Queen Bee has to really try, but you can! Can you see it at all?” 

Chat Noir squinted, tilting his head. “The air does look kind of fuzzy there, now that you mention it.” 

“Break it!” she ordered, interrupted by a loud shout. 

“Gotcha!” the akuma said, hitting Queen Bee with a black orb right in the chest. She collapsed on the ground with a thud. “Oh, wow,” the akuma victim said, stopping her advance as though contemplating something. “That’s one painful worst memory you’ve got right there. Poor little Bee girl, her mother’s been dead for years-”

“CATACLYSM,” Chat Noir shouted, reaching forward and touching the shield with one claw. Cracks splintered out from his touch like a spiderweb until the whole thing collapsed. 

Ladybug charged forward, vaulting over Chat Noir and standing in front of their fallen comrade with her yoyo spinning as fast as possible. “Her name is Queen Bee!” she shouted. 

“Ladybug,” the akuma snarled. “This place isn’t  _ for you!  _ You already have it all!  _ How dare you!”  _

“Paris is for everyone!” Marinette shouted back. 

The akuma finally undid her veil - there was a young woman underneath, with striking white hair and purple skin. “I hope you like seeing your friend suffer, Ladybug,” she snarled. “I’ll come back when you’re ready to negotiate.” 

“You’re not going anywhere!” she replied, swinging her yoyo forward - 

But it just met a cloud of black mist as the akuma disappeared.  

Ladybug growled in frustrusation and turned around, watching as Chat Noir beant down on one knee to touch the shoulders of their newest ally. “Queenie?” he asked softly, stroking her arm. “Queen Bee? Are you okay, there?” 

Queen Bee jumped up suddenly, rising to hover four feet in the air as she scrubbed her eyes with both hands. “Don’t touch me!” she shrieked. 

Chat Noir rose to his feet as Ladybug padded forward to stand next to him. “Queen Bee, tell us what’s wrong,” Marinette said softly, craning her neck as the bee rose higher. “We can help you.”

“Oh, please,” Queen Bee scoffed. She sniffed loudly and finally opened one eye to gaze down at them. “Chat Noir and Ladybug, Ladybug and Chat Noir. You have each other, you don’t even need me! This was a mistake.” 

“That akuma feeds on happy people’s misery,” Marinette said, taking a shot in the dark. “That’s just the akuma talking, Queen Bee.” 

Chat Noir’s ring beeped. 

“I’m can’t take this anymore,” Queen Bee said, and shot straight up into the air. 

“I don’t like this. I’m going after her,” Chat said, pulling his baton back out. “Call me when you find the akuma!” He leapt away into the sky too. 

 

* * *

 

Adrien lost track of Queen Bee pretty soon after he departed from Ladybug’s side; she disappeared easily into the clouds, and Adrien’s transformation was running out soon anyway. He bounded back to the school on a hunch, and also to get Plagg’s cheese. 

Plagg was even more cross with him than usual, shooting out of the ring as soon as Adrien landed in the bushes outside. “Geez, kid, do you have to inhale so much poison? She was trying to mess with your mind so hard.” 

“Key word: trying,” Adrien said, scooping Plagg up and running inside the school. He ran to the locker room, nodding at the janitor (who was very much used to Adrien running through late at this point) on his way. “Here,” he said, opening his locker and throwing Plagg in. “Stay there are recharge, I gotta go check on Chloe!” 

“Wait, kid-”

Adrien slammed the door shut and sprinted back to the classroom. The door was open, and he zeroed in on her right away: her regular proud posture was now closed-in on herself, and her face was a flushed bright pink. 

“Adrien, please take your seat,” Ms. Bustier said. “We were discussing last night’s reading assignment.” 

He nodded, letting his feet carry him over to the desks. He hovered by his seat indecisively, never taking his eyes off Chloe the entire time. Up close, her eyes were screwed almost completed shut and shiny with unshed tears. 

“Hey, man,” Nino whispered loudly. “Is your dad alright?” 

“Yeah, he’s fine,” Adrien replied, and then made the decision to take a step forward and kneel down next to Chloe. “Hey, Chlo, are you alright? I couldn’t find you after we ran out, and you…” his concern only grew as she turned her head away from him. “Chloe, I’m really sorry, but you don’t look so hot.” 

“Leave me alone,” she mumbled into her shoulder. 

He tentatively brought a hand up to rest on her knee. “Chloe…” 

“I said, leave me  _ alone!”  _ she shouted suddenly, shoving his shoulders until he full back on his butt on the floor. 

They were making a scene. “Just tell me what’s wrong,” he pleaded. “We can go talk about it outside.” 

Sabrina was uncharacteristically silent at her side, but Mylene behind her said quietly, “Whoa, Chloe.” 

“Sh-shut  _ up,”  _ Chloe choked out, jumping to her feet. The tears were running freely down her face now. Adrien scrambled up to block her path to make sure she couldn’t run away again. “Get out of my way, Adrien!”

“Class,” Ms. Bustier started. 

“Let me help!” Adrien cried, throwing his arms out. 

Chloe let out something between a laugh and a sob. “The last thing you want to do is help me. You  _ left  _ me.” 

Something in the pit of his stomach dropped as he remembered the akuma’s parting words:  _ I hope you like to see you friends suffer.  _ “Chloe, I’m sorry,” he admitted, creeping forward slowly. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Don’t apologize, everyone leaves me,” Chloe said. The tears were streaming full force down her face, now. 

“Chloe,” Alya said suddenly, “Did something happen to your dad?” 

She scrambled backwards into the corner of the classroom. “I can’t do this. I can’t-” she sobbed. “I can’t-”

Sabrina finally got up from her desk, her own eyes filling with sympathetic tears. “You can do it, though, Chloe,” she said quietly. “I know you can.” 

Adrien jerked his head in Sabrina’s direction sharply. Did  _ Sabrina know? _

Chloe ran out of the classroom behind Ms. Bustier’s desk, sobbing her heart out as she went. 

 

* * *

 

The Akuma had set up another golden bubble around a neighborhood 2 arrondissements away. Marinette waited impatiently for at least another 45 minutes before Chat found her again. “Enjoying your stake-out, my lady? Did you try  _ bugging _ her?”

“There you are,” she said, tugging him down so he could hide behind the car with her. She hadn’t even heard his boots hit the pavement, but he’d always been quiet like that. “This is no time for jokes, Chat Noir. How’s Queen Bee?” 

He grimaced. “I couldn’t catch up with her. She sounded miserable, though, like she couldn’t stop crying.” 

“Did you hear what the akuma said about her not having a mother before?” Marinette asked, her own expression turning to a frown. “And all that stuff about orphans? I think that must be what the bubble is for - she’s keeping everyone with parents out. That’s why Queen Bee could get half-in.” 

Chat immediately tensed. “That doesn’t make sense,” he told her. “I’m not an orphan. I must have mentioned my father to you sometime.” 

Marinette resisted the urge to wrinkle her nose. Oh boy, had he, with things like  _ Parents are supposed to love their kids, anyway,  _ and  _ Don’t worry, I can stay out longer, no one will notice I’m gone.  _ “I’m just spitballing here, Chat. What do you think?” 

“I’m thinking she has sadness powers,” he said quickly. “Her mist makes you tear up, and if she shoots you she makes you relive your worst memory. The bubble must be - unlucky people, maybe? Or sad people. We need to get her out of that big black mourning dress - that’s where all her powers are coming from. The akuma must be underneath.” 

“I still can’t cross through the bubble,” Marinette replied. “Think you can lure her out?” 

Chat made a face. “I don’t know if she, herself, can cross it. She didn’t before.” 

“Darn,” she muttered. “I don’t like asking you to Cataclysm right away, but...”

“I’m pretty sure I could just destroy a part of it,” he told her. “Make a hole big enough for us to drop through, and then we do a quick-and-dirty ambush.” 

“Do it,” she ordered, standing up accepting Chat’s hand as he reached for her. 

“I’m gonna jump for it,” he said, grabbing Ladybug around the waist with one arm and planting his baton with the other. “Ready, my lady?” 

“Whenever you are, chaton.” 

He smiled at her, and against her better judgement Marinette took a moment to revel in the feeling of standing beside her partner, supported and strong. “Cat’s away!” 

She trusted Chat Noir to do his best; he’d never let her down in that regard, so she just clung to him as he grew his baton to a dizzying height, located the akuma victim, and dropped them straight over its head. A hole in the bubble just wide enough for the two of them melted away at his Cataclysmic touch, and Marinette used her yo-yo to control their free fall directly on top of the akuma. 

“Miss us?” Marinette yelled as she grabbed the akuma by the hood and  _ pulled,  _ forcing the hood back. 

Chat, by the akuma’s feet, had sent it stumbling. “I know I miss your lovely face every time we’re parted, my lady.” 

“No time for your flirting now, Chat,” Marinette quipped almost gleefully as she wrapped the akuma victim up in her yoyo. “Where do you think the akuma is?” 

The woman in her clutches scowled at her. “Ladybug,” she spat. “Give me your miraculous, or suffer the consequences.” 

Marinette faked a yawn with one hand. “Boring. Heard that one before.” 

“I’m going to try ripping her robe,” Chat said. 

The akumatized woman shrieked and wrenched against the yoyo restraints, pulling with enough force to fling Marinette off of her feet and into a building on the other side of the street. 

“LADYBUG!” She distantly heard Chat scream as she crashed. As she brought one hand to her head to try to steady herself, she heard the metallic sliding noises of Chat’s baton in action. 

_ And now I’ve lost my yo-yo,  _ Marinette thought, looking at Chat dodge the black mist and beams again before shouting, “LUCKY CHARM!” 

A two-pronged pitchfork fell into her hands. She stared at it desperately for meaning, the other half of her brain vaguely anticipating Chat’s usual deadpan snarky response to her strange lucky charms. He’d probably say something like  _ Taking up farming there, Ladybug?  _ Or  _ Great, now we can do a great scarecrow impression!  _ Actually, maybe a scarecrow wouldn’t be a terrible idea- 

WHAP. 

She jumped at the sound of Chat colliding headfirst with one of the akuma’s black orbs and collapsing to the ground on his knees, hands coming up belatedly to press against his eyes. The akuma also looked surprised at this turn of events, just watching as remnants of blackness oozed off in waves. “Oh, look at the poor kitty,” the akuma said, watching as Chat started to tremble. “His worst memories are doing quite a number on him. He doesn’t have a mother, either.” 

“HEY!” Marinette shouted, running forward and brandishing the pitchfork in two hands like Chat would do with his staff. “That’s my kitty! Leave him alone!” 

The akumatized woman smirked. “Why should I, Ladybug?,” she asked, taking a step in Chat’s direction. “It’s not like he can do anything to stop me right now.” 

Marinette took a step in Chat’s direction, but immediately had to flip backwards out of the way of more black smoke and projectiles. She needed her yoyo, dammit, but she couldn’t let the akuma out of her sight and she definitely couldn’t let it hurt Chat and- 

There! Chat’s staff! On the ground to her left! 

She ducked and rolled out of the akuma’s range to grab it, but unfortunately the akuma was all too willing to forget about her and head for Chat’s miraculous. Marinette scooped up the staff desperately, shouting “HEY!” once more and waving that and the pitchfork like an idiot, but the akuma was…

The akumatized woman had stopped dead at the sight of Queen Bee, who was standing in front of Chat with nothing but two trembling fists up, tears streaming down her face. “D-don’t touch him,” Queen Bee said quietly. 

Marinette took her chance. “BEE,” she shouted, launching the staff in her fellow bug’s direction. She didn’t know what Queen Bee would do with it - she was unpredictable, she wasn’t Chat, and anyways she didn’t seem to be any shape to fight - 

Queen Bee looked terrified at the sight of the incoming projectile and ducked, but a hand -  _ thank you thank you thank god -  _ Chat’s hand plucked it out of the air like he was picking a flower, using the baton in one fluid motion to haul himself to his feet and then extending it into the akuma to push her back. 

Marinette ran forward with the pitchfork to meet the akuma in the middle. The pitchfork acted like a giant seam ripper, tearing the robs down the side and allowing a little black butterfly to escape. 

_ Her yo-yo! _

She sprinted for the yo-yo and managed to catch the butterfly right at the edge of the now-fraying gold bubble. “Gotcha!” she cried triumphantly. “Bye-bye, little butterfly!” Of course, she’d dropped the pitchfork in her hurry, so she had to go back for it. Usually Chat Noir would have tossed it to her by now, but he must still be down for the count, or…

She stopped and blinked when she turned around. Chat Noir and Queen Bee were embracing each other, both of them still looking tearful. 

“I miss my mom,” Queen Bee was sobbing, clutching his shoulders tightly. 

“Me too, Queenie,” he murmured quietly, almost too low for Marinette to hear. He looked over Queen Bee’s shoulder to make eye contact with her. 

Marinette looked away quickly, feeling like an intruder and she went for the pitchfork lying next to the now thoroughly-confused looking woman dressed in funeral attire. “Miraculous Ladybug!” she cried, throwing the charm in the air and watching as the cure melted all the damage away. 

It seemed to immediately help Chat Noir and Queen Bee, who each perked up as the cure washed over them. Queen Bee pulled away immediately, holding Chat at arm’s length and frowning. “Wait,” she said, looking him up and down and then, inexplicably, parting Chat’s hair down one side. “Wait a minute. Ad-”

Chat Noir shoved a hand in Queen Bee’s mouth, which coincidentally let out five beeps as Bee ogled him in shock. “Secret identities gonna change back talk to you later bye!” he all but shouted, waving at Ladybug for half a second before vaulting away with his staff. 

Marinette’s earrings let out two beeps, but she stayed to make sure of things. “Queen Bee,” she said, trying to squish down the part of herself that was angrily wondering exactly how long the bee and the cat had been hugging. “You did a great job today.” She held up a fist in an attempt to regain normalcy. “Pound it?” 

Queen Bee was still staring in the direction Chat Noir had left in. “Do you and Chat not know each other’s secret identities?” 

Marinette dropped her fist and huffed in frustration. “No, of course not. That would be dangerous. No one must know.” 

“Right,” Queen Bee muttered doubtfully, but then shook herself. “Wait. Did you say that  _ I  _ did a great job?” 

“Yes,” Marinette repeated. Bee let out a squeal and then threw herself into Ladybug’s arms.  _ Maybe she’s just a hugger?  _

“Ladybug thinks  _ I’m  _ great!” Queen Bee crowed, squeezing Marinette before stepping back. “Oh, this is a dream come true! If everyone could see me now-”

As if on cue, a reporter shouted “Ladybug! Who is your friend?” 

Smiling to herself, Marinette took Queen Bee’s hand and led her over to the akuma victim. “Hi,” she said kindly, waiting for the victim to get her bearings. “I’m Ladybug, and this is my friend Queen Bee. We’re going to help you get home.” 

Marinette’s earrings let out three beeps, and she brought up a worried hand to her ears. “Actually, I’m going to change back,” she said apologetically. “Bee, can you take it from here?” 

Bee looked nervous. “I’ve never done this before.” 

Marinette remembered her first day on the job, watching nervously as Chat had nothing but confidence, and nothing but confidence  _ in her.  _ “You can do it,” she told Bee decisively. “You saved Chat and I today, twice. We’re lucky to have you.” 

Queen Bee’s eyes widened. “I won’t let you down, Ladybug.” 

Marinette winked at her. “See you around, Queen Bee!” she announced extra-loudly, so that the reporters could hear her, and then swung away. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ACTION ACTION angst ACTION angst ACTION Oblivious Marinette


	4. Everybody Talks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which I break the #1 rule of the miraculous fandom and Adrien is not perfect 
> 
> (but he's trying ok)

Adrien really didn’t want the inevitable conversation to happen at his house, so he stopped by his room just long enough to drop off his schoolbag and then went to wait at Chloe’s suite in her father’s hotel. 

“I still can’t believe this girl got a miraculous,” Plagg grumbled, floating around Chloe’s room. There weren’t many personal details besides the large extra closets full of clothes to distinguish this room from any other suite in the hotel. 

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Adrien agreed, trying to wipe the camembert smell off his fingers. 

“And yet she’s somehow the first one to figure out your identity,” Plagg said, half-turning to face him with one suspicious eye. 

“It’s Chloe,” Adrien said, like that was an explanation. Plagg flew over and landed on Adrien’s knee. “She...I know this is kind of morbid, but. We sort of had this no-parent club. Our moms were both gone, and our dads are both busy, so we hung out by ourselves all the time. She used to be my best friend."

Plagg plopped down on his belly, enough so that Adrien could feel the heat from his tiny body on his leg. “She can’t be too dumb, if she kept up with you.” 

“Ha,” Adrien said, scratching Plagg behind his ears with one finger. “I’m just saying, we knew each other’s grieving faces really, really well. It’s no wonder she caught me. Sometimes I sit down and rack my brain and wonder if she was always so mean and self-centered and I just never noticed, or if she actually used to be different. I don’t think I could tell either way.” 

“No wonder you wanted to go to school so badly,” Plagg said, rolling over so that Adrien would give him belly rubs. “You are the weirdest kid.” 

“Thanks,” Adrien said dryly. 

“It’s not only your complete lack of social skills,” Plagg continued. “It’s also your complete lack of appreciation for cheese!” 

“ _ I _ don’t have social skills?” Adrien scoffed, flicking the kwami off his leg. 

Plagg opened his mouth to most likely start another one of his Cheese Monologues, when the door burst open with a harsh clang and Plagg zipped over to hide in Adrien’s shirt pockets.  

Chloe seemed thoroughly startled to see him there, sitting on one of her tables with his knees swinging in the air. “Adrien,” she said, dropping her backpack off on the floor and straightening her shirt like looking neat would hide the fact that they were crying while crime fighting all afternoon. “Nobody told me you came up.”

“I took the window,” he answered her, voice equally smooth despite his wildly beating heart. She definitely knew it was him, right? She’d been about to say his name in front of Ladybug and everything, there’s no way he was giving himself away now-

“So you are Chat Noir,” she said, closing the door behind her and strutting over. Her eyes were still red and puffy, but Adrien expected his weren’t much better. “Adrien. Holy... _Adrien_ _.”  _

“I thought you recognized me,” he said. 

“No wonder you recognized  _ me,”  _ she answered, fingering the yellow comb stuck in the base of her ponytail. “I was wondering what you meant when you told Pollen that you knew me better than anyone. It hurt when you pulled my comb out of my hair, by the way.”

Pollen zipped up out of Chloe’s school bag, dusting herself off and staring at Adrien with unblinking blue eyes. “Chat Noir,” she said in that buzzy voice. “We meet again. Did you bring Plagg with you?”

Before he could answer, Plagg shimmied his way out of his overshirt and hung in the air. “Of course he brought me with,” he said, and then turned to address Chloe. “Hi, I’m Plagg, kwami lord of bad luck and destruction. I’m with the kid.” 

Chloe’s eyes widened. “Chloe Bourgeois,” she said faintly, raising a hand for him to take before aborting the gesture halfway.  

“I know,” Plagg said, before zipping away to the corner with the bee kwami, shouting, “Oh, Polly!” 

“Don’t mind him,” Adrien said, rubbing his palms on his jeans. “He’s a character.” 

“I have the world’s largest bee,” Chloe said. “You have the world’s smallest cat.” 

“He likes cheese.” 

“Pollen likes honey,” Chloe answered. 

Adrien nodded awkwardly, absolutely 0% sure of where to go from here. 

“So,” Chloe said, hopping up to sit next to him on the table. She had always been brave like that. “I’m Chloe Bourgeois, and from now on I’ll be your new superhero, Queen Bee.” 

He snorted. “Adrien Agreste,” he said. “But that’s just my day job. I’ve been moonlighting as Chat Noir for a little while now.” 

“This explains a lot,” she replied, a wide smile appearing on her face. “You’re  _ so  _ in love with Ladybug.” 

“Not the time, Chloe,” he snapped. 

The smile faded from her face as quickly as it had come. “Right,” she said, starting away from him down at the floor. “You hate me.”

“I don’t hate you.” 

“Ladybug said I did a good job today,” Chloe said. “So good, because you shouldn’t.” 

“I never did!” 

Chloe humphed, still not looking at him. 

“Well, you haven’t akumatized anyone in the last couple weeks, so that’s getting better at least,” Adrien said, jumping off the table. “I mostly just came over to make sure you wouldn’t blab my secret identity all over Paris, so as long as that’s settled-”

She finally looked back at him. “Fuck you, Adrien,” she spat. “Being all high and mighty-”

“You bully my friends!” he defended. 

“I didn’t have to be nice to people,” Chloe shouted. She waved a hand out, gesturing to the hotel. “The only reason I even go to public school is for Daddy’s  _ politics.”  _

“You don’t have to be nice, you just should be!” Adrien shouted back. “Especially now you have a miraculous! It’s basic human empathy, Chloe-”

“Like you aren’t secretly cruel,” she interrupted, sneering. “I know you, Adrien, just because you have your fake little quiet school-boy personality doesn’t mean you can pretend around me!” 

“Well, I’ve been doing it the last year and a half just fine!” he yelled. “I’m nothing like you!” 

“Maybe I’m nothing like me either!” she yelled back. 

“That doesn’t even make sense!” 

“I said I was trying, okay!” she screamed, gripping the edge of the table so hard her knuckles turned white. “You don’t get to be mad at me forever just because you like holding a grudge! You didn’t even give me a chance to change, you just  _ abandoned me! _ ” 

“Shut up, Chloe,” he snarled. "It's not my job-"

“What, you don’t want to hear it? I though you were my friend, so guess what,  _ Gabriel- _ ”

“Plagg, claws out!” Adrien ordered, and for the first few seconds as Chat Noir, the first time he’s transformed in front of another person ever, he’s direly considering the consequences of destroying Chloe’s whole room until it’s nothing but ash. 

He doesn’t - obviously he doesn’t - but he makes it back home in record time, collapsing on his bed which such force it creaks ominously. 

“Kid,” Plagg says, spiraling out of the ring. “What the hell was that?” 

Adrien buried his head in his pillow. “Nothing, Plagg.” 

“I haven’t seen you this mad since...Christmas.” 

When he’d almost destroyed the largest Christmas tree in Paris. Great. “I don’t know why I’m so mad a Chloe,” he admitted to his pillow. “I honestly think she is trying.” 

“Adrien,” Plagg said from somewhere in the vicinity of his desk. “If you’re feeling betrayed right now, imagine how she’s feeling.” 

“I’m not my dad,” Adrien mumbled. 

The kwami didn’t reply. 

“Hey, Plagg,” Adrien asked softly. “If Ladybug’s good luck and we’re bad luck...what is the bee the kwami off?” 

“Hmm,” Plagg answered. “Pollination. Fertilization. Helping things grow. Making things better.”

 

* * *

 

“Chloe and I got in a fight,” Adrien told Nino dejectedly.

From her desk one seat behind, Marinette kept scribbling in her sketchbook things that would definitely be trashed later. It didn’t matter, as long as she didn’t look up and didn’t look like she was listening. 

Which. She probably shouldn’t be. But? 

“Dude,” Nino said. “I don’t know how to break this to you, but you have Chloe _have been_ in a fight.” 

“Another fight, Nino. It was bad. I think I was in the wrong this time.”

Nino slapped a hand to his chest in mock-surprise. “Be still, my beating heart. Adrien Agreste, the angel of Paris, as been human enough to make a mistake-”

“Shut up,” Adrien said playfully, elbowing him. 

Marinette agreed with Nino. 

“If you’re gonna tear yourself up about it, just apologize, dude,” Nino told him sincerely.  

“But Chloe was always so mean to everyone,” Adrien said. “I let it go for so long, now that I finally-”

“You don’t have to punish Chloe for the rest of us,” Nino interrupted. “Not your job. We appreciate the thought, but it’s not necessary.”

No, Nino, Marinette thought. If you could not drive him back into Chloe’s arms, that would be great. 

Adrien brought his head down on his desk. “I’ve been told recently I have no social skills.” 

Nino laughed. “They’re improving by the day.” 

“Nino,” Adrien said slowly. “How come you don’t want me to be angry with Chloe? I thought you hated her.”

“Dude,” Nino said, like Adrien was an idiot. “Like you said, you have no social skills. You need all the friends you can get.” 

“Thanks,” Adrien said dryly. 

“I’m not going to discourage something that makes you happy,” Nino continued. 

Marinette frowned and started scribbling harder onto her sketchpad. 

“GUYS!” Alya said loudly, dropping her books onto the bunch next to her with a thump that made Marinette jump about a foot into the air. “Did you see, did you see!!” 

Marinette smiled and closed her book. “Yes, Alya, you texted me about a million times yesterday, remember?”

“See what?” Nino asked, twisted around in his seat. 

“Queen Bee yesterday!” Alya practically sang, whipping out her phone and showing Nino pictures. “The new bee superhero! Look, here she’s hugging Ladybug - and here with Chat Noir - so she’s official! We have a new hero of Paris, ladies and gentlemen.”

“Whoa,” Nino said. “Good for her. I’m glad we have more good guys - not that Ladybug and Chat Noir couldn’t handle it, of course, but they could always use the help.” 

Marinette looked at the picture of Queen Bee clinging to Chat. It was shot from a distance, but the details were still pretty easy to make out. “Her outfit is amazing,” she said, “But she seems a little clingy, don’t you think?” 

“They were just in a battle, Marinette,” Alya justified.  “I’m sure it was scary, and it was just her first time.” 

“Plus, wasn’t the akuma yesterday a bad one?” Adrien added. His golden hair reflected the sunlight bouncing in from the window. “I mean, it took over blocks at a time.” 

“It displaced a lot of people,” Alya agreed. “They just got pushed out of her little golden bubble. I soo wish I could have been there! No one really knows what happened. Here, this isn’t mine but it’s a link to an interview for Queen Bee-”

Marinette watched in interest as Alya started playing the video. Queen Bee, for all her enthusiasm around Ladybug, seemed surprisingly camera-shy.  _ “L-ladybug’s time was running out,”  _ she stammered in front of the camera, blushing.  _ “Can you make sure this woman gets home safely, please? I’m not sure - I don’t know what Ladybug and Chat Noir usually do.” _

_ “What are your special powers?” a reporter asked. “Can you fix akumas?”  _

_ “Oh, no,” Queen Bee answered. “I’m just here to help Ladybug. She’s so amazing.”  _

_ “What are your powers?”  _

Marinette realized that was probably a question she should have asked Queen Bee herself. What were her powers, exactly? 

_ Bee twirled one of her hair ribbons around her finger nervously. “Well, I can fly, obviously,” she said. “Um, I think the rest should stay a between me and my - um, team. For now. I should go.” _

“See?” Alya said. “New hero!” 

“She seems so sweet,” Marinette murmured. 

“She seems nervous,” Adrien added, frowning. Marinette glanced over at him, heart melting at his compassion. 

“I wonder why they call her Queen Bee,” Nino said. “Seems a little presumptuous, don’t you think?” 

“Maybe it gives her confidence,” Marinette said. 

“I’m going to find out,” Alya declared. “I need an interview with her! Ladybug likes me, I think, so she’ll give me a good recommendation. Quick, guys, give me all your questions. I need to be ready for the next akuma attack!”

 

* * *

 

Queen Bee was definitely a fangirl, but actually kind of awesome. 

“Wow, Ladybug!” she said, hovering in the sky. “Don’t you get tired?” 

“Not really,” Marinette said, preening under the phrase as she did another flip between rooftops. “The transformation gives you so much energy. You’ll get used to it.” 

“I wish I could do gymnastics the way you do,” Bee said, sinking a few feet to Marinette’s level. 

“You can fly!” Marinette protested. “That’s just as cool. Save the dumb acrobatics for me and Chat. Speaking of, actually, where do you suppose that cat is?”  She debated checking Chat’s location on her yoyo to see if he was transformed, but decided against it. “He usually goes out for a run on weeknights around now.”

Queen Bee shifted uneasily. “Maybe he’s busy tonight.” 

“Maybe,” Marinette agreed. It was unusual, but not unprecedented. Oh well, she could just work with the new team member by herself. “So, besides flying, what else can you do?” 

Queen Bee reached behind her back and pulled out her yellow top-shaped thing again. “This is my trompo!” She announced, expanding it from a disk to is full tear drop shape. “I actually don’t know everything it does. I can poke people with it, and I’m supposed to be able to throw it, but my aim’s not that great.” 

“Yet,” Marinette said, smiling. “We can work on it! I promise it gets better with practice. I wasn’t so good with my yo-yo my first time out, either. In fact, my very first time out as Ladybug I crashed headfirst into Chat Noir-”

“That’s true, she quite literally fell for me.” 

“Chat!” Marinette exclaimed, turning to find Chat Noir melting out of the shadows and padding forward silently to join them on the edge of the rooftop. “We were just talking about you.” 

“I noticed,” he said smugly, letting his baton rest across the back of his shoulders and blinking lazily and Ladybug. “Pining for me, my lady?” 

“You wish,” Marinette said. “Just wondering if you were always going to be late for practice.” 

“Coach Ladybug’s  _ purr _ snickety today, isn’t she?” 

Marinette rolled her eyes. “This is what I have to deal with,” she explained to Bee. “Get ready for puns. Lots and lots of unstoppable, terrible puns.” 

“Don’t worry, Ladybug,” Bee said flatly. “I never thought Chat Noir was very funny.” 

Chat stiffened, before leaping over to stand directly under Queen Bee awkwardly. What had happened between those two? They were perfectly huggy and buddy-buddy last time Marinette had checked. “Queenie,” Chat started, shuffling his feet. “You were right, earlier. I did just abandon you without giving you a chance. I’m sorry. I don’t want to be the kind of person who just...freezes people out.”   

Queen Bee landed softly in front of him. “Well,” she said. “As long as you don’t do it again.” 

Chat Noir smiled at her. Marinette could tell he was smiling, even though his back was to her, because Chat Noir smiled with his whole body - ears perking up, tail rising, shoulders relaxing.

Chat Noir had never directed a full-body smile at somebody else before. 

She cleared her throat and clapped her hands, banishing all thoughts of  _ Chat knows Queen Bee in real life  _ and  _ what happened when they both got hit by the akuma?  _ from her mind and doing her best to pretend the last 60 seconds didn’t happen. “So, the team’s all here,” she announced awkwardly. “Queen Bee, do you want to try figuring out how that trompo works?”

“Oh, cool,” Chat Noir added. “Time for team practice with the newbee!” 

 

* * *

 

Ladybug had ended their now routinely-scheduled practice with strict instructions to call each other if an akuma attacked. After figuring out that Queenie’s trompo could also function as a communicator, like his staff or Ladybug’s yo-yo, she bid them goodnight and headed home. 

Adrien tried not to be too awkward as he approached Chloe, knowing Ladybug was still watching even while swinging away. “Hey, Queenie,” he said. “Can you head to my room? I want to…” he trailed off. 

Chloe nodded. “I can,” she drawled. “Are you sure you’re not just going to yell at me again, though?” 

He sighed. “I’ll try my best.” 

Chloe followed him home, and Adrien tried to ignore the feeling of Ladybug’s eyes drilling into the back of his head as he led the way. 

Chloe hadn’t been to his room in a couple of years, so when she dropped in his window and released the transformation she immediately started nosing around the place. “Oh my god, Adrikins,” she said, wandering over to the corner of his room. “Do you have a Ladybug  _ body pillow?”  _

Adrien blushed, running over and grabbing her arm to pull her away. “That’s private, Chlo!” 

Chloe barely minded his harsh grip, turning her neck to get a view of her desk. “You have a Ladybug screensaver too!”

“Chloe!”

She had shit-eating grin on her face. “No wonder you were never interested in me,” she said. “You love Ladybug. You’re Chat Noir, of course you love Ladybug. You love Ladybug more than-”

“Can we talk about something other than my unrequited crush, thank you?”

Chloe laughed. “Oh, Adrikins, please. Unrequited? Ladybug’s been all over you for the last two years!”

“In a fighting-crime type way,” he mumbled dejectedly. “I’m just her battle partner. She’s not in love with me.” 

“Hey,” Chloe reprimanded, nudging him with her elbow. “You’re Adrien Agreste. You can have whatever you want.” 

Adrien led the way over to his couch and plopped down. “You of all people know better than that,” he mumbled. 

She sat down next to him. “Well, I can have whatever  _ I  _ want, and I want to be your wingwoman. Ladybug will be yours in no time. Nothing but the best for my Adrikins.” She paused, and then added, “Get it? Wingwoman? Because of the-”

“Sweet cheese almighty,” Plagg interrupted, floating down on the table in front of them with a chunk of camembert in hand. “Now there’s two of you.” 

“Get out of here, cat-thing,” Chloe snapped. “It’s my turn to talk to Adrien. You can have him later.” 

“Chloe,” Adrien admonished. 

Plagg scowled at her. “I can make your life a living hell, girl. Don’t get snippy with me.”

“Plagg,” Adrien complained. 

Pollen flitted over. “Are you threatening my charge?”

“No,” Adrien said, grabbing Plagg out of the air. 

“He doesn’t scare me,” Chloe added, holding her hands out for Pollen to rest on. 

Adrien shoved the cheese in Plagg’s mouth as an effort to keep his kwami quiet. Only three beings on the planet knew his secret identity, now, and all three of them were incredible prideful. Great. “Back to what I invited you over for,” he announced loudly, and cleared his throat. “So. Superhero business.” 

Chloe straightened up and tossed her ponytail back over her shoulder. “Yes,” she said. 

“Maybe we can cover for each other, now,” Adrien said. “It might be a lot easier to sneak off with two of us.” 

“Ew,” she said. “Bourgeois’s don’t sneak around.”

“This one will,” Adrien said, pointing his finger at her. 

“New superhero business,” Chloe interrupted. “I will become Ladybug’s best friend, and then I will make you her boyfriend.” 

“Chloe,  _ no _ ,” Adrien said sharply, pulling back. “No more manipulating people, especially as Queen Bee, and especially not Ladybug. She deserves better than that.”

She pulled back quickly, deflating. “Sorry,” she mumbled, looking away. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

He cleared his throat awkwardly. “That’s okay, I guess.” 

“Can we start with something small?” Chloe asked, looking up at Adrien through her eyelashes. “Like, can you help me get the rest of the class to like me?”

Adrien smiled. “Yeah,” he said. “That’d be a great place to start.”   

 

* * *

 

“Don’t worry about it,” Nino was saying. “You knew it was a long shot.” 

“She was just so uncomfortable!” Alya answered, slumping.

Marinette dropped herself down of the seat next to Alya, proud of herself for taking down the two akumas and getting back in plenty of time before class resumed. “Who was uncomfortable?” 

“Queen Bee,” Alya said glumly. “I was filming the end of the latest attack - some boy a grade below us got a bad grade on a test, that’s why we were all evacuated, FYI - and then I went up to Queen Bee afterwards and she, I don’t know, just froze up.”

“You were asking some tough questions,” Nino said, poking Alya in the wrist. “What was she supposed to say?” 

Marinette had used her Lucky Charm fairly quickly into the last akuma battle, so she’d had to run out fast. “What did you ask?” she said curiously. 

“I asked her if there were going to be anymore new superheros joining the team,” Alya said. “You know, since Ladybug and Chat Noir kind of came as a pair, I was wondering if Queen Bee would have a counterpart. But she said no, she didn’t think so. So I asked how she got her powers-”

“Alya,” Marinette admonished, feeling slightly betrayed despite herself. 

“It was just a question!” Alya defended. 

“No wonder she froze,” Nino said, stretching his neck. “What was she supposed to say? Tell everyone in Paris how to become an animal-themed hero? That’d be a nightmare.” 

“I was just trying to get more information about the Miraculous,” Alya replied hotly. “You know I wasn’t trying to put Paris in danger. Look, here’s what we know: all three of them - well, four if you count Hawkmoth - have something called a Miraculous that presumably gives them their powers, since they always want to take them awake from each other. The Miraculous have time limits. That’s...it.” 

“Why are you messing around with Miraculous research, Alya?” Marinette said, feeling like her earrings were burning at the sides of her head. “It’s probably dangerous. Let Ladybug and Chat Noir handle it, I’m sure they’re doing fine.” 

“That’s just it,” Alya said. “The akumas are getting stronger. I’m pretty sure Queen Bee was the response from their call for backup.”

“You wrote that on your blog days ago,” Nino said longsufferingly. 

“Yeah,” Marinette agreed. “What’s your point, Alya?” 

“My point is, if Ladybug needs help, then I want to help them!” Alya burst out. “If I can just get a Miraculous -”

“Whoa, there,” Nino said. “I’m starting to get a villian origin vibe from you, Alya.” 

Alya frowned and crossed her arms. “You’re exaggerating.”

Marinette made a face. “Is he, though?” 

“Betrayed,” Alya said. “I’ve been betrayed by my two best friends. Where’s...hey, Adrien!” 

Marinette practically jumped out of her chair as Alya waved over Adrien, who was just now returning to school himself with Chloe (blegh). Adrien said something to Chloe and then strutted over, hands in his pockets. “Hey guys,” he said beautifully. 

“Adrien, tell them that wondering how Queen Bee got her miraculous is not a villain origin story,” Alya ordered.

Adrien looked over to Nino, who just blinked. 

“Sorry,” Adrien said. “Going to have to go with villain origin story.”

“How do you guys  _ do  _ that?” Alya exploded. “Marinette and I don’t read each other’s minds like that. You’re crazy.”

“You two team up against me all the time,” Nino argued. “Don’t hate us ‘cuz you ain’t us.”  

Adrien sat down next to Nino. “It’s a shame you’re becoming a villain, Alya,” he said. “I feel like I was just getting to know you.”

“All my friends are sassing me today,” Alya groaned, thumping her head down on her desk. “I don’t deserve this.”  

 

* * *

 

Adrien cleared his throat, hands clasped loosely behind his back. “Father, Natalie said you were home.” 

Adrien’s father was, in a rare moment of not being busy yelling at someone on the phone, drawing something at his desk. He didn’t look up. “What is it, Adrien?” 

“I was wondering if I could please go over to a friend’s this Saturday,” he said. 

“Does your schedule really-”

“Natalie approved it,” Adrien interrupted. “It’s Chloe Bourgeois house, Father. The anniversary of her mom’s death is coming up.”

His father actually paused, pencil hovering over his notebook. “Would you like to send her household some flowers?” 

“No, that’s okay,” Adrien said quickly. “So Saturday is alright?” 

It was a miracle his father didn’t demand more information. The last time Adrien had asked permission to go out instead of just sneaking was - a very long time ago, actually. “Yes, Saturday is fine,” Father answered. “Wish Mr. Bourgeois well for me if you see him.” 

“Thank you, Father,” he bid, and exited the office before his father could change his mind.

 

* * *

 

It was like being nine again, and being dropped off at Chloe’s while his parents went to a fashion show.

“You know, Adrikins, I've always been meaning to ask. What's your miraculous power?” 

He didn’t pause his video game. He wasn’t sure why Chloe had them - he knew for a fact she wasn’t interested in Mecha Strike III - but they served his purposes well. “My what?” 

“You know, like Ladybug's,” Chloe said lazily. She was painting her nails and flipping through magazines on her bed. “She shouts Miraculous Ladybug at the end of a battle and fixes everything. Does yours, like, destroy everything in Paris?” 

“Oh,” Adrien said. He used the Chat Noir bot to kill his online opponent, watching as his rank went up. “That. I don't have a miraculous power.” 

Pollen let out a little buzzing noise. 

“What?” he asked, wrenching his head away from the TV. 

“Nothing,” the kwami said instantly. 

“I don't have a miraculous power,” Adrien said, turning around to where Plagg, on the table, had just dived into another wheel of cheese face-first. “Right, Plagg?” 

“Hm?” 

“I don't have a miraculous Chat Noir power. You would have told me, right?”

Plagg took a large bit of cheese, and then mumbled, “You don't have one that you can use, anyways.”

“Wait,” Chloe said. “So he does have one, he just can't use it or it would destroy the city, right? I was right! I knew it!” 

Plagg glared at her and swallowed. “No comment,” he retorted. “Look, Adrien, you're a great black cat. One of the best I've ever had. Don't let this dumb bee put any ideas in your head, alright? We're having enough trouble with the magic imbalance as it is. You're great just as you are.” 

“Aw, Plagg,” Adrien said, a smile breaking out over his face. “You do care!”

“Don’t let him distract you,” Chloe argued. “He’s trying to cover-”

“Shut up, Chlo,” Adrien said, reaching over and snagging Plagg with one hand. His kwami uncharacteristically allowed Adrien to hold him without struggling and even nuzzled Adrien’s face when he brought him to his cheek. “This is the nicest thing that Plagg has ever said to me, ever. I don’t care how it happened.” 

Plagg started to vibrate lightly in his hand. 

“I didn’t know you could purr!” Adrien squealed, delighted. 

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Oh, my god.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Judging by the amount of sass Chat gives Ladybug, who he's in love with, I can only imagine how sassy Adrien gets with Chloe. My promise of sibling interactions has now been delivered. 
> 
> THOSE S2 SPOILERS TODAY holy crap this means im writing an UNDERWATER CHAPTER


	5. Marinette is Not Jealous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Marinette denies her crush on Chat Noir, and Chloe and Adrien have snipe at each other like sibling pros

The thing was, it was significantly easier to deal with the akuma with the three of them than it was back when it had just been her and Chat. 

Back when it was just her and Chat, she’d always had to keep a close eye on her partner - her thoughtless, reckless, brash, flirtatious partner, who was always running into situations and chasing after enemies, always in need of a hand to pull him back or swing him out of trouble. She didn’t need to do that anymore. Queen Bee was their automatic distraction these days more often than not, while Chat Noir kept a close eye on  _ her  _ and did most of the heavy hitting with his staff. Ladybug and her yo-yo became their surprise element, always ready to yank something away at the end of the ambush. She was still the leader, the director; nothing had really changed. 

Except that what had once been _ Ladybug and Chat Noir _ became Ladybug, and also Queen Bee and Chat Noir. She didn’t know why Chat stood it - they used to insist they were a team, equals, and they  _ were.  _

Maybe Alya and the Ladyblog were just getting to her lately - 

Chat and Queen Bee seemed to go out for nighttime patrols together these days and _why did that bother her so much_  -

“Miraculous Ladybug!”

Queen Bee let out a loud sigh of relief as the ladybugs washed over her. “Thank you, Ladybug! You’re a lifesaver. How’s my hair?” 

Chat rolled his eyes as he stuck his baton back behind his back. “You diva. Bumble this way, we’ve got a victim here.” 

“I am not a  _ diva,”  _ Bee argued, floating behind him as Chat wandered back over to where the young boy, no older than 11, had been freed of his murderous desires to turn everyone into footballs. “If you didn’t throw me into things  _ headfirst-  _ tell him, Ladybug-”

“Hey, buddy,” Chat Noir said, squatting down beside the boy. 

The boy looked up, eyes wide. “Chat Noir?” 

“The one and only,” he said smoothly, helping the boy to his feet. “Don’t worry, everything’s fine now.” 

“Almost everything,” Queen Bee added, touching down beside them. “You never answered me.  _ How is my hair?”  _

Chat scowled at her. “Buzz off, Queenie, it’s fine!”

“ _ Just  _ fine?” 

“It looks exactly the same as it did before!” he exclaimed, gesturing madly. “How am I supposed to know?” 

Between them, the younger boy giggled. 

Queen Bee dropped her attention to him. “Don’t listen to him,” she said conspiratorially. “He loves hair. When we were four years old, he used to ask me to do his hair all the time-”

“Queenie,” Chat whined. 

“-and he used to throw an absolute  _ fit  _ if he didn’t have at least 3 butterfly clips-”

“QUEENIE,” Chat hissed, flushing. The boy was laughing again. 

She almost gasped out loud as the facts hit Marinette all at once - the childhood stories, the fact that they were both missing a mom, that Chat had recognized Queen Bee on her first trip out - 

“Chat’s just as much of a diva as I am,” Queen Bee said. “Right, Ladybug?” On either side of the boy, the two looked back at her. 

\- the sheer physical similarities: they were both tall, and skinny, and blond, and  _ oh she was an idiot -  _

Chat Noir and Queen Bee must be twins. 

Marinette felt a load of tension she didn’t even know she’d been carrying rush out of her. “Chat Noir is the biggest diva I know, bar none,” she exclaimed, striding over to her teammates confidently. 

Chat clapped his hands over his heart dramatically. “My lady,” he said, swooning. “How could you betray me like this?” 

Her earrings let out two beeps, but luckily the police were in sight, and her teammates were more than capable of taking it from here. “I’ve got to go,” Marinette said regretfully. “I’ll see you guys around, ok? Good luck getting home!”

Queen Bee made a face. “Ew, home. Bo-ring.”

“It’s not that bad,” Chat said. 

Marinette smirked to herself. “Goodbye!” she called, swinging her yo-yo and carrying herself back to her balcony before the transformation ran out. 

Tikki sat on Marinette’s desk while Marinette brought up a whole plateful of cookies, humming under her breath. “What’s got you in such a good mood?” Tikki asked. “You’re usually tired after two akumas.”

“It’s Saturday, it’s nice and sunny outside,” Marinette started, plopping down in her desk chair. “And you’ll never believe what I found out today.”

“What?”

She snagged one of the cookies for herself. “Chat Noir and Queen Bee are twins,” she announced, taking a bite. “Sibilings at least, but I think twins. They’re the same age.” 

Tikki’s eyes widened. “How did you figure that?”

“The way they talk,” Marinette answered. “The way they act. Honestly, I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. It wasn’t until Queen Bee told this story today...” she giggled. “Apparently she used to do Chat’s hair when they were four.” 

Tikki swallowed another cookie whole. “Well, I’m glad this is making you happy.” 

“It explains so much!” Marinette burst out. “I was getting kind of worried before - you know we’re not supposed to share our identities with anyone, but I just  _ knew  _ that Queenie had found out about Chat’s, even though he wasn’t saying anything. He might have been scared to admit to me, honestly, but if they’re twins - well, no wonder they recognized each other!” She let out a relieved laugh. “You know, Chat asked me once if he thought we knew each other in real life. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but it always kind of bothered me in the back of my mind, what if, right? But this proves it! If I knew Chat Noir or Queen Bee, I’d be able to recognize them!” 

Tikki chewed pensively. “I didn’t know you were worried about that.” 

“Not worried, per se,” Marinette said. “Just...I’ve spent an awfully large amount of time with Chat. I know Chat.” She nodded to herself. “When he started hanging out with Bee so much it kind of, I don’t know, threw me for a loop, I guess. He was hanging out with her all the time, there was this whole side of him I’d never seen - but if it was his sister, then. Well, of course!” 

“Someone sounds jealous,” Tikki said, smiling. 

“J-jealous?” Marinette spluttered. “Me? Jealous? Of Chat Noir?” 

“It’s only natural, Marinette,” Tikki assured. “You don’t have to be ashamed. Your partner was making new connections-”

“I was not jealous,” she argued. “Chat can do whatever he wants. Besides, we’re not partners anymore. We’re a trio now.”

“Ladybug and Chat Noir will always be partners,” Tikki said. “You are connected, equal and opposite.” 

“That silly cat can be partners with anyone,” Marinette argued. “He doesn’t pay nearly as much attention to me now.”

What she’d meant to be convincing just came out whiny. “Oh, Marinette,” Tikkie cooed sympathetically. “If you’re right and he’s only worried about his sister, he’s just having an adjustment period. I’m sure he still likes you.”

Marinette swallowed. Maybe she’d been a  _ little, tiny  _ bit jealous, but there was no way she was admitting that to Tikki. “It’s good that he doesn’t flirt as much anymore,” she asserted. “He was never serious about it, any anyways, I love Adrien.” 

“I know,” Tikki said simply, and dived back into the cookies. 

 

* * *

 

Chloe flew through Adrien’s window and detransformed without any sort of warning, causing Adrien to jump at his desk where he was working on his history homework. “Adrikins!” 

He whipped around in his chair. “Chloe! Haven’t you ever heard of knocking?” 

“It’s an emergency,” she answered, pouting. 

“What if I hadn’t been wearing pants?” he demanded. 

“Do you often lie around not wearing pants?” she asked.

Next to Adrien on the desk, Plagg smirked and opened his mouth, but Adrien slammed his hand down on top of him. “None of your business, Chlo,” he said, gradually lifting up the slide of his hand and glaring at Plagg, who was still smirking. 

“Whatever,” she said, strutting over and sitting down on his bed opposite him. “We need to talk. I noticed something weird after the akuma battle today.”  

Adrien let go of Plagg. “What?” 

She took a deep breath. “You’re not allowed to think I’m crazy.”

“What was it, Chloe?” 

“There’s a black dot in the sky,” she said. 

Adrien blinked. “Like...a cloud?” 

“No, not a cloud,” Chloe snapped. “I don’t know what it is. It’s like a black hole. It’s about the size of my fist.” 

“Well, that’s impossible,” Adrien said. “If it were a black hole, we’d all be dead.” 

“Shut up, you dork,” Chloe snapped, slapping the bed with one hand. “Look, will you just come check it out with me?”

Adrien sighed. “Can we go tomorrow? I have homework to do, and I’m really behind on my piano practicing-”

“You don’t believe me,” Chloe said, offense coloring her tone. “There’s a really weird thing in the sky, Adrien! We should go right now!” 

“It’s nighttime!” he replied. “My father wouldn’t-”

“Chat Noir would go check it out right now with me,” she replied. 

Adrien frowned. “I am Chat Noir.” 

Chloe rolled her eyes. “You act so different as Chat, you practically have a full-blown multiple personality disorder going on.” 

“Oh, wow,” Adrien said, bringing both hands to his cheeks. “Do I...act...differently as Adrien Agrest, dutiful son and model, than I do as Chat Noir, leather-clad sweet-talking savior of Paris? I’ve literally never noticed!” 

Chloe glared at him. “There’s no need to be a sarcastic little shit about it.”

He sighed. “Is there anything else, Chlo?”  

“Actually,” Chloe said. “I noticed you haven’t been getting anywhere with Ladybug lately. I think we should set you up on a date-”

“OH MY GOD,” he screeched, jumping to his feet. “Get out of my room, Chloe!” 

“Adrikins-”

“Get out!”

She pouted and flung herself onto his couch. Needless to say, she did not end up leaving his room for almost an hour. 

 

* * *

 

Adrien didn’t mean to bring up the subject. He and Nino didn’t usually talk about girls, at all. Mostly because Adrien’s girl problems were, well, wrapped up in his secret identity problems, and Nino was, well, Nino. The last time he had confided in Adrien had led to the disastrous zoo adventure. 

But Chloe’s voice wouldn’t leave his head. She’d just chattered on and on and on last night about how  _ dating is great  _ and  _ it isn’t so hard to get a girl to like you, especially if you have a little help  _ and he knew she was wrong, ok. He knew that girls were the mostly complicated things in the world. 

Still, he and Nino were eating lunch alone that day, and he found himself asking, “So, did you ask out Alya yet?” 

Nino promptly started choking on his sandwich. 

“Oh, no,” Adrien said helplessly, reaching over and patting Nino awkwardly on the shoulder. “Are you ok?” 

Nino swallowed, took a large gulp of his drink, and then looked back over with wide eyes. “Sorry,” he said, voice raspy. “Caught me by surprise, I guess.” 

“I shouldn’t have asked,” Adrien apologized. 

“No, no, it’s cool,” Nino said. “Um, no, I haven’t really asked Alya out. Ah, I tried once, but she ran out on me to go film an akuma attack. I’ve kind of been too chicken to try again.  I don’t know if she’s into me or not.”

Adrien took a bite of his own food. “I’ll wingman it for you.” 

Nino smirked. “Eh, considering what happened last time-”

“That was not my fault,” Adrien replied hotly. “How was I supposed to predict evil jaguar?” 

He laughed. “I’m just saying, as far as Alya goes, Ladybug’s been my wingwoman far more than you have.”

“How am I supposed to compete with  _ Ladybug,”  _ Adrien groaned. “Not even Chat Noir can compete with her.”  

“Just don’t try anything,” Nino said. “Alya’s way too caught up in her miraculous research project recently anyways to even have time for me.” 

“Miraculous research project?” Adrien questioned. He wondered if Plagg was listening from the bottom of his bag. 

“Yeah,” Nino said. “Alya’s convinced that she’s found proof of other miraculous users from different times. She’s been toying with the idea ever since the Egypt incident, but she’s supposedly found some more stuff recently. She’s kind of secretive about it, so that’s all I know.” 

Would it be weird if Chat Noir payed a visit to Alya? Probably, he decided. Ladybug would never approve of it in a million years, and it might be nothing, anyways. “That sounds like Alya,” he said out loud. 

“Enough about me,” Nino replied. “You have any girl problems lately, dude?” 

Adrien snorted.  _ Just Ladybug, who will never take me seriously in a million years, no matter what Chloe thinks she can pull.  _ “Nah,” he said casually. “You know me. My father would never let me date anyone, anyways.” 

Nino sighed. “Man, I hope we get to your rebellious stage soon. I bet rebellious Adrien is the man.” 

Adrien smirked and said nothing. 

 

* * *

 

Tikki flew up to Marinette’s bed to interrupt her TV streaming marathon. “Queen Bee is calling,” she said. 

“Queen Bee?” Marinette repeated, scrambling up in bed to unlock the trapdoor to the balcony. “There must be an akuma! Tikki, we gotta go!” 

One transformation later, she was up and bouncing over rooftops as she opened her yoyo in one hand. “Bee, where are you? What are we up against?” 

Queen Bee must have been up in the air - she was silhouetted by a backdrop of blue sky. “Ladybug! I knew you would listen to me. Chat just-”

Her heart was suddenly pounded in her chest. “What happened to Chat?!” 

“Oh, nothing,” Bee said. “He’s working tonight. I should I have said, there’s no akuma.”   

She felt like she was deflating. “Queen Bee, you scared me half to death! I thought something has happened!” 

“Well, there is something I think you should see,” Bee said. “Come look at this?” 

“Where are you?” Marinette asked. 

“Nevermind,” Queen Bee said. “I’ll find you.” And she hung up. 

Marinette stared at her yoyo in disbelief for a few seconds, and then reluctantly closed it and stared at the sky. It was only about a minute before Queen Bee landed in front of her. “Thank goodness you’re here, Ladybug. There’s a dark spot in the sky.” 

She tilted her head. “Like...air pollution?” 

“No,” Queen Bee snapped, and held out her hand. “It would be easier if I just flew you up there.” 

Marinette stared at Bee’s outstretched arm.  _ You never hesitate with Chat,  _ she reminded herself, and grabbed it. “Okay. Show me.” 

Queen Bee didn’t have Chat’s wrist guards, or even seams running down one side of her arm for Marinette to dig her fingers into. Queen Bee just grabbing her by the hands and  _ pulled,  _ flying them both through the air like it was nothing. 

It probably was nothing, to Bee, but Marinette scrambled for something to hang onto and ultimately swung herself across Queen Bee’s shoulders, piggyback style, just so she had something to hold onto. “Is this okay?” 

“Yeah!” Queen Bee answered, having to shout a little to be heard over the wind rushing past them at such high altitudes. “I can do it! Okay. Ok. Here it is.”

Bee slowed to a stop at a seemingly random point in north Paris, above nowhere significant in particular. “Where are we?” Ladybug asked. 

“It doesn’t matter,” Queen Bee answered. “The darkness moves everyday.” She pointed, and Marinette’s gaze followed the line of her finger. 

Oh.  _ Oh.  _ It actually was just a sphere of darkness - a very dark purple, it seemed, almost black if she looked the right way - sitting in the sky. Marinette leaned to the side and, following her lead, Queen Bee circled around it.   

“What is that?” she whispered. 

“I don’t know.” 

“Can you get closer?” 

Queen Bee flinched and stopped circling the orb. “I don’t want to.” 

Marinette didn’t stop looking at it.  “I know what you mean.” It gave off a...feeling.   

“So what do we do?” 

“Are you sure it’s not the work of an akuma?” Marinette asked. “Weird stuff always is.” 

Queen Bee shrugged under her hands. “I mean, it’s been here a couple days, but you’re the expert, Ladybug.” 

“Ok,” Ladybug said. “We’ll keep an eye on it. I’m sure it will go away when the next akuma finally attacks and I can use the Miraculous Cure. It’ll be fine.” 

Queen Bee started floating back down.  “You’re right, Ladybug.” 

Of course she was. She was Ladybug. “Yeah, don’t worry about it, Bee,” she repeated. “It’ll go away soon, I promise.” 

 

* * *

 

Alya burst into Marinette’s room, like she burst into everything in all areas of life. “Hey, girl. Are you going to ask Adrien to the fall dance or what?” 

Marinette blushed, but ultimately kept her focus on the little skirt she was embroidering. She’d improved a lot since last year. “Hey, Alya. Yes, I did have a good day. It’s good to see you too. What was that about the Ladyblog?” 

“You know there hasn’t been anything out of the ordinary on the Ladyblog,” Alya scoffed, pulling up a footstool and sitting down next to Marinette by the desk. “Queen Bee and Chat Noir were doing target practice yesterday, but that’s nothing new. Now. Marinette. The school started selling tickets for the fall dance today, and that is new news.” 

“Maybe that’s why it’s called news,” Marinette mused. “Cuz it’s new.” 

_ “Marinette.” _

“What am I supposed to do, Alya?” Marinette said, throwing down her needle and fabric and turning to her friend. “Just suddenly be able to  _ talk to him  _ like a normal human being?” She started doing her impression of herself. “H-hey, Adrien, I - oo - eep -  bleh - blegh.” 

“You’ve gotten better lately,” Alya encouraged. “You did that party thing all by yourself.” 

“That was barely anything,” she replied, blushing. 

“You talk to him all the time in school! We hang out with Nino and Adrien plenty!” 

Marinette decided to go on the offensive. “You’re right, we do hang out with Nino and Adrien. I wonder why that is?” 

Alya looked at her doubtfully. “Because they sit right in front of us?” 

“Nino has a crush on you,” Marinette replied. “Nino has a big, fat-”

Alya slumped down in her seat. “Nino  _ had  _ a crush on me,” she mumbled. “He doesn’t anymore.”

“What?” Marinette asked. “That’s crazy. He’s head over-”

“Nino hasn’t tried to ask me out  _ once,”  _ she said. “I asked him if he wanted to go get dinner with me one time, and he told me he had a gig and never brought it up again, so.” 

“Ask him again!” 

“You ask Adrien,” Alya countered. 

“Adrien and I aren’t even friends,” Marinette muttered. “Not like you and Nino.” 

“There’s your problem!” Alya replied. “You just have to talk to Adrien!” 

“Oh, yeah,” she replied. “Just  _ talk to Adrien.  _ There’s an idea.” 

“We’ll work on it,” Alya promised. 

“And we’ll work on you and Nino?” 

“No promises,” Alya told her. 

Marinette sighed. “We’re hopeless, aren’t we?” 

 

* * *

 

The akuma was a mermaid, and Paris was flooding.

They heavy rain didn’t help. 

“You can’t catch the Siren, Ladybug!” The akuma victim shrieked, sending a blast of water that knocked her straight out of the air. 

“Ladybug!” Queen Bee shrieked, swooping in to catch her and flying them both up to the roof where Chat was waiting. “Are you okay?” 

Marinette hopped down from Bee’s arms to land next to her partner. “I’m fine.” She hugged herself and hopped up and down in an attempt to warm herself up, water was pervasive. “Anybody got any ideas?” 

Chat had his pole extended to about five feet in length; he was leaning on it heavily. “Any chance you could Lucky-Charm us a giant sponge?”  

“Any chance you could Cataclysm this water away?” she countered, shaking her bangs out of her eyes. 

He shook his head. “I don’t think it would work, cuz of the rain.” 

Queen Bee landed heavily behind them. “This  _ stupid  _ rain is making it difficult to fly,” she said, brushing water off her shoulders like that would do any good. 

Marinette exchanged a quick look with Chat - if Queen Bee couldn’t fly, she was practically defenseless. “We should split up,” she decided quickly. “Bee, you go back and stay with Siren’s ex-boyfriend. We know she’s headed in that direction. Chat and I will stay here and try to take it down before she gets that far.” 

Queen Bee frowned. “But Ladybug-”

Chat Noir leaned over the edge of the building. “It won’t be too long before she’s flooded the streets enough to swim. Queenie, if you go head her off, it would really help.” b

Bee crossed her arms. “Fine,” she snapped. “But this is a stupid plan. Without me, you’re going to get yourselves killed.” 

“Don’t worry about us, Queen-” Marinette started. 

“We  _ are not,”  _ Chat Noir interrupted, bringing one hand to his chest like a scandalized old lady. "We've been doing this for a while, you know."

“Are too,” Queen Bee argued stubbornly.  

“Are not!” 

“Are too!” 

“Are not!” 

“Want to bet?” Bee asked, quirking an eyebrow. 

“Fine!” he shouted. “Name your terms.” 

“If you die,” she stated, “Then your headstone will read ‘I should have listened to Queen Bee’ and I get to pick out the font.” 

“What-” Marinette started. 

“Done,” Chat agreed. “When this plan works, then you have to throw N-my best friend a birthday party.” 

“Fine,” Bee snapped, crossing her arms. “You’re stupid,” she added, and then jumped into the air and flew away. 

Marinette sighed and crossed over to Chat Noir, who quickly shifted his gaze from his sister’s disappearing form back down at the slowly flooding street. “You two,” she muttered. “I’m an only child, so I don’t think I’ll ever understand. At least she’s safe, right?”

Chat glanced over at her, frowning. “What?” 

“Nevermind,” Marinette dismissed, and looked back down to where the akumatized mermaid was flooding Paris with the water streaming off her body. “Do you have any thoughts?” 

“I’m thinking that cats aren’t usually big on getting wet,” he said, leaning into her with one shoulder. “Then again, jaguars actually love to swim, so maybe I can just channel my South American brothers today.” 

She shoved him back. “I meant on how to deal with the akuma, Chat.” 

“Uh,” Chat said. “Punch it...really hard?”  

Marinette rolled her eyes. “Thanks.” 

“I’m going down there,” he announced. “Are you coming?” 

“This is the reason Queen Bee worries about you,” she replied. “Of course I’m coming with you.” 

Chat smirked. “Music to my ears, my lady. A catcall, if I may.”

“Are you going down there, or do I have to push you?” 

He laughed, and then vaulted back down onto the street. 

Marinette hooked her yoyo to a balcony on the other side and swung, clinging to the wall opposite as she watched Chat wade through knee-deep water. “Hey!” he was shouting, baton ready in one hand. “Aren’t little mermaids supposed to sing, or something?” 

_ Chat, you idiot! _

The akuma victim grinned. “They don’t call me the Siren for nothing, you know.” And then she opened her mouth and  _ screamed.  _

It looked pretty disgusting, actually, like a beach whale vomiting. Chat deflected the first hit of water that came his way, and attempted to circle around the akuma despite all the splashing he was doing in the water. 

Marinette saw something silver flash in the Siren’s dark hair. A hair clip! It must be where the akuma was hiding! 

The street was flooding faster now. Whatever taunting Chat was doing was just making her angrier, making it worse. The water was about up to Chat’s thighs when the Siren attacked him one last time and then sank into the rapidly rising tide. Chat jumped up onto his elongated pole, vaulting over to land on a balcony diagonally below Ladybug’s. “Shit, I lost her,” he swore. 

“The akuma’s in her hair clip,” Marinette informed him. “It’s gotta be.” 

“Do you have a plan?” 

“What, did ‘punch really hard’ not work?” she teased, adjusting her stance in preparation. “Lucky-”

“LADYBUG LOOK OUT!”  

She was shoved off her balcony - by Chat, she assumed - and tumbled two stories before she caught another railing with her hands. Palms smarting, she dragged herself up in time to see  _ Chat Noir riding on the akuma’s back.  _

“Chat!” she cried, casting her yoyo to the other side of the street and leaping for him. The Siren had grown to at least 10 feet in length - Chat was trying to claw his way up her body, but with the way they were flopping in and out of water she could he was struggling just to hang on. Yo-yo string in one hand, she arced down towards them with the other outstretched. “Take my hand!” 

Chat Noir looked up at her, absolutely drenched at this point, and leapt, arms outstretched. 

“No!” the Siren screamed, and whacked Chat straight out of the air with her tail. He went flying - down the street, all the way into where the Seine River was overflowing. “Give me your miraculous, or I’ll drown that cat and the whole city, Ladybug!” 

Marinette landed on the roof on other side of the street, scowling after Chat. He’d taken hits like that before - Stormy Weather had sent them both flying across the city, and she thought he might have even fallen off the roof of the TV station before - he had been fine both times. 

He’d been fine. 

Why wasn’t that  _ stupid cat  _ coming up for air? 

“I can always pry your and your friends’ miraculous off your cold, dead bodies,” the Siren hissed. “But for now…” She dived under the water in the opposite direction, back towards where Queen Bee should be guarding the Siren’s ex-boyfriend.  

Chat hadn’t used cataclysm, Marinette told herself. He had time. His transformation would protect him. His suit had never failed before- 

_ “CATACLYSM,” Chat Noir shouted again, scratching the bars of the cage hard enough with his claws to create a high pitched screeching noise. Stilled, nothing dissolved into dust at his touch. _

He still hadn’t come up for air.

“You stupid cat,” Marinette muttered, casting her yo-yo and swinging. She cannonballed into the water directly on top of where Chat had landed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and some more plot makes an appearance


	6. Water Fight!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AKA the LadyNoir chapter

The water had been cold for a about a second when he first hit, his whole body smarting from the bad belly-flop, but that went away pretty quickly. The first thing he really noticed about the transformation was that his night vision had kicked in. 

_ It’s dark underwater,  _ he thought to himself idly, stroking with his hands to try to orient himself. He’d be thrown pretty deep, so he wasn’t quite sure which way was up - 

Which was when he noticed his hands. 

His  _ webbed  _ hands. 

Adrien freaked out over his hands, and then his feet (which had grown flippers!), and was just about coming to the realization that he was still breathing normally even though he was underwater when his tail caught his attention. Man, his tail was like one giant paddle. 

He didn’t usually have conscious control of his tail, so he concentrating really hard on flicking it - one flick send him gliding forward about three meters. So, he was about three meters from his original position when Ladybug came careening down in space he’d just been occupying. 

He saw her transform - he saw a small flash of pink light through all the bubbles, and a scale-like pattern trickle across Ladybug’s suit until webbed fingers, flippers, and a belt manifested around her waist. 

“Whoa,” he breathed, looking down at himself. He usually had something of a belt which turned into his tail at the back, but now it was much more defined, a bright green paw-print sitting in the middle of his belt buckle. “Check us out, LB.” 

Her head jerked around at his voice, eyes searching in the relative darkness. She opened her mouth, closed it again, and brought a hand to her throat. 

Adrien kicked his way over next to her. “Don’t worry, we can breathe,” he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. 

Ladybug slapped his arm away, overbalancing a little as the motion spun her through the water. “You  _ stupid  _ cat!” she shouted, readjusting. “I was  _ worried  _ about you! Why didn’t you come back up?” 

His heart melted at her concern. “I’m sorry, Ladybug,” he apologized. “I’m didn’t mean to worry you. I’m fine, look-” he showed off his tail. “New powers!” 

She punched him again in the chest, but softer. “I knew you were fine,” she mumbled. She might have been blushing. “You always are.” 

Adrien smiled.

“Can’t get rid of you that easily,” Ladybug joked, spinning around in the water to inspect the rest of her body. “Actually, this is kind of cute.” 

He shook himself. “It’s hard to improve on perfection, my lady.” 

“There’s the flirting,” she sighed. 

“Who said I was talking about you?” he joked, spinning around. “Have you ever seen such a handsome catfish?” 

“Just to remind you,” she said. “We did leave Queen Bee alone with the akuma’s target.”

Adrien’s smile faded. “Right. The mission.” And Chloe, out there all by herself and not happy about it. “I bet it’s about to go  _ swimmingly,”  _ he joked, flicking a foot. 

Ladybug rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. “Just follow me,” she ordered, and led the way back up to the surface. 

Or, where the surface should have been.

 

* * *

 

Paris was creepy underwater. 

Marinette started out leading the way because Ladybug always led the way, but between the creepiness and the darkness (the water wasn’t extremely deep, only about 10 feet, but the rain wasn’t exactly letting much light through) she found herself hesitating about the time they swam up out of the flooded Seine and onto the flooded street, staring at the ground floors of the flooded buildings. 

Chat Noir swam up beside her and squeezed her wrist. “Don’t worry, my lady, I can guide us,” he said, mistaking her anxiety for just being lost. “My night senses are still good in the water.” He wrinkled his nose. “Except for smell, maybe. I’m not used to it.” 

“I think this is the most damage Paris has ever taken,” she said quietly. “Do you think anyone drowned?” 

Chat gripped her wrist harder. “I’m sure everyone’s fine,” he said. “It’s nothing your miraculous cure can’t fix, anyway.” 

“It’s still a lot of pressure.” 

“Ha!” he exclaimed. She looked over at him, confused. “Water pressure, right? Nice one, my lady.” 

And just like that, she was feeling better again. Chat always made her feel better. She rolled her eyes, smiling to herself, and swam faster. Chat’s one hand stayed on her wrist, but with giant paddle-fin he easily kept up. “That wasn’t what I meant.” 

“Oh? Are you saying it was  _ punintentional?”  _

“Now you’re just  _ punishing  _ me,” Marinette told him. Chat looked delighted, and her heart did that little flip-thing in her chest again that it was  _ not supposed to do because she did not like Chat that way _ . She looked away quickly before he could notice her blush. 

They were interrupted by a giant roar -  the akuma they’d been chasing, the Siren, had morphed into a giant sea serpent. A monster with a face. 

Chat let go of her wrist and pulled his baton out from behind his back. “I known moisturizing is good for the skin, but isn’t this taking it a little overboard?” 

“There’s a silver clip in her hair,” Marinette reminded him, grabbing her yo-yo. “That’s where the akuma is!” 

"Wat-er we waiting for, then?" 

The following fight was brutal - the two of them could swim and breathe underwater, but there was no question that the Siren was a better swimmer, and faster. Her lucky charm was a hula-hoop, which she used in combination with her yoyo to create a net. Chat lured her inside, and with one quick grab, she was able to grab the hairclip and purify the akuma. 

“Bye-bye, little butterfly,” Marinette chanted, throwing the hoop immediately up into the air.  _ “Miraculous Ladybug!”  _

The Siren turned back into a young woman, and she and Chat both melted back into their regular costumes, as the water sank…

...back down to knee level. 

She stared in dismay as Chat ran forward to help the akuma victim, urging her indoors. There was no way that Paris was actually this flooded, which meant that - that - 

“My miraculous cure didn’t work.”

“There must be a second akuma,” Chat said simultaneously, and then turned to stare her. “What?” 

“Oh,” Marinette said. “I thought, maybe it’d been faulty lately because of Queen Bee’s black dot, but you think?” 

“Definitely,” Chat Noir answered, holding out one hand to test the air. It was still pouring rain, causing his hair to plaster itself to his scalp. “This weather? Not natural.” 

Her earrings let out their first beep as she smiled in relief. “Guess I’ll have to recharge, then,” she said. 

“I’ll scout it out,” Chat replied. “And before you go, my lady?”

She turned back. “What?” 

He held out a fist. “Akuma number one, great job. We have  _ miraculous  _ new powers in the form of wetsuits. Pound it!” 

She tapped his fist with her own. “Pound it,” she agreed, and then flew off in search of cookies. 

 

* * *

 

Adrien hadn’t used Cataclysm during the first akuma take down, and since his ring wasn’t beeping (despite the costume change) he figured he had plenty of time to chase down Chloe.

Or, rather, for Chloe to fly face-first straight into him.   

He tried to catch her, but she knocked them both over onto the roof anyway. “Gah! Queenie!” 

“Adrien?” she asked. “Sorry, sorry. I can’t see  _ anything  _ in this stupid rain.” 

“No real names while we’re wearing the mask!” he snapped, pushing himself back to his feet. “What are you doing here? I thought we sent you to protect the akuma’s ex-”

“Yeah, yeah,” she interrupted. “Like I was just going to do whatever fool’s errand you sent me off to. Nice to see you didn’t drown without me, by the way.”

“I’ll fill you in later,” he said, scowling. “Have you seen the second akuma?” 

Chloe frowned. “No, but I did track down the dark hole in the sky again.” 

“What hole in the sky?” he asked.    
  


“Are you kidding me?” she responded, putting her hands on her hips and rising two feet in the air. “I told you all about last week and you told me I was imagining  _ a cloud or something.  _ There’s this big dark hole in the sky, and when Ladybug came out to investigate it with me, she said it would go away then next time she did her Miraculous Ladybug, but it  _ didn’t.  _ It actually got bigger!” 

“Whoa,” Adrien said. “Could that be the akuma? Did you see anything?” 

She scowled at him. “No,  _ as always, _ there weren’t any other people up there.”  

“No need to bee such a grump about it,” he said. “Come on. For a rain-based akuma, I think we should start looking at the TV station.”

“Why there?” Chloe asked. “And what about Ladybug?” 

“That’s where the all the weather akuma usually end up,” he said. “She’s recharging her kwami, she’ll catch up.” 

“I think we should wait for her.” 

Adrien raised his eyebrows, even though Chloe couldn’t possibly see with the rain and his mask in the way. “I can handle myself without her, you know.” 

“It’s a miracle you’re still alive,” she dismissed. “Didn't we have a bet about what would happen if you die?” 

He grinned. “Aw, Queenie. You worried about little ole me?” 

She frowned and made a show of dialing a number on her trompo. “Hello? Memorial Headstones? I was wondering how much a medium-sized, marble grave marker would be - oh, actually, that’s very reasonable-”

“Ha, ha,” he deadpanned. “You coming or not, Queen Bee?” 

Past experience prevailed - an akuma victim by the name of Monsoon Season was at the top of the tower, and although poor Chloe was blown around a lot there wasn’t that much up this high for her to crash into. One well-timed distraction, and - 

“Aha!” Adrien cried, snatching the newspaper hidden in his pocket and pouncing away. “Got it!” 

“Break it!” Chloe shrieked, arms flung in front of herself even as Monsoon Season turned away from her in rage, staring down Adrien. 

“Ah,” Adrien said calmly, looking at the rapidly soaking newspaper in his grip to the monster in front of him. “You see, Ladybug’s not here yet.”

“CHAT!” she screamed as he dove away, Monsoon Season redoubling all his efforts on getting his item back. “Just toss it to me!” 

“It’s too flimsy!” he shouted back. “It might rip! We can’t risk the butterfly getting away!” 

An outline of a purple butterfly appeared over Monsoon Season’s face; it was probably Hawkmoth telling him it would be better to just force the wet newspaper to rip. Adrien couldn’t let that happen, he just hand to hold on until Ladybug was here-

He looked over the edge of the TV building, staff in one hand and newspaper in the other. Queenie wasn’t nearly fast enough to avoid the akuma, but if he could make a break for it and lose the akuma down in the city...  

“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t do it!” Chloe shrieked. 

“I’ve had worse!” he yelled in reply, and then jumped. 

Adrien could hear Chloe screaming above the wind whistling in his years, but he didn’t have the time to feel sorry about that. He was halfway down the building and busy dreading how much strain catching himself with his pole would put on his shoulder, when he felt a familiar jerk around his ankles and found himself abruptly trussed up, hanging from a street lamp. 

“Save it,” Ladybug said, raising one eyebrow and smirking at him. “I’ve heard all your lines about falling for me already. We’ve got to stop meeting like this.”

“But I brought a present for you, my lady,” Adrien replied, smiling as he ripped the the newspaper out in front of him with his claws. 

He was abruptly dropped as a purple butterfly flew out, Ladybug turning away to snatch it up in her yo-yo automatically. Adrien pushed himself back up to his feet, watching as she paused right after the yoy-yo snapped shut. “Wait,” she said. “Was that...the akuma?” 

“I thought you’d like it,” he said smugly, brushing himself off. 

“Chat Noir!” Queen Bee screamed, touching down next to the two of them. “What the hell were you thinking, just taking a swan dive off the roof like that? If Ladybug hadn’t caught you, you’d be a cat-shaped hole in the ground and I’d be cashing in on our bet!” 

He frowned at her. “Wait, did you just the akuma victim alone on the roof?” 

She punched him in the shoulder. “Of course I left him! I thought you were  _ dead!  _ Ladybug, tell him!”  __

Ladybug shifted from foot to foot. “Bye, bye, little butterfly,” she mumbled under her breath, releasing the yo-yo and watching the white butterfly fly out. 

_ “Ladybug,”  _ Chloe whined, but stopped to watch the butterfly as it continued on its journey. “Where do the butterflies go?” she asked suddenly. 

Adrien stopped to watch too. “Forget the butterflies,” he said, staring at Ladybug’s yo-yo with horror. “What  _ is that?”  _ He gestured to the dark purple, almost black little sphere about the size of a marble peeling itself from one of the yoyo’s spots and rising into the air. 

“That’s the same stuff as the black hole I told you about!” Chloe shouted. 

“MIRACULOUS LADYBUG,” Ladybug shouted suddenly, reeling her yoyo back into to shoot streams of ladybugs into the air. The clouds parted, the water around them disappeared, and the three heros dried off instantly. 

The black dot continued to exist, rising up into the sky.  

“I’m on it,” Chloe announced, jumping into the air. “You two stay here and flirt, or whatever you usually do.” 

“Queenie,” he complained half-heartedly, but she was already yards away. “I hope she knows where she’s going.” He held up a fist. “Bien joue, my lady.”

Ladybug crossed her arms, her lips pressed into a straight line. “Chat, I didn’t even do anything.” 

“Yes, you did,” he said. “You purified the akuma.”

“Did I?” she turned away from him. “That...that hasn’t always been happening, has it?” 

Adrien shrugged helplessly. “I mean, I’ve never noticed it before, but...”

“Oh, god,” Ladybug moaned, hugging herself and hunching over. “I’m a failure, I’m-”

“You’re not a failure,” he said crossly, walking over and grabbing her by the shoulders. “Don’t insult my favorite superhero like that.” 

“That’s not nice to Queen Bee,” she replied, staring up at him.

“She’ll get over it,” he said, smiling quietly. “Whatever this is, we’ll take care of it. Together, all right?” 

Her eyes searched his face. She opened her mouth, closed it, and then finally said, “Alright.” 

“Oh my god, just kiss already.” 

Adrien and Ladybug leapt apart. “Queenie!” he hissed, feeling himself blush and hoping his mask would cover it. 

“What?” Chloe shrugged, still hovering in the air. “You’re into her, she’s into you-”

“SHUT UP,” he shouted desperately. This was it. This was how he was going to die. He was going to burst into flames of embarrassment on the wettest day Paris had ever seen. 

She held up her hands. “Sorry, I didn’t know you were so sensitive about it.” That was a lie, she was smirking,  _ she knew exactly what-  _

Ladybug cleared her throat, avoiding eye contact with either of them. “Queen Bee, what did you find?”  

“Well, it definitely leads back up to the hole in the sky,” she replied, crossing her arms. “Which is definitely getting bigger.”  

Ladybug closed her eyes. “I was afraid of that.” 

“Maybe it’s not a bad thing,” Adrien suggested. 

“It’s a big dark hole in the sky, Chat Noir,” Chloe snapped. “Don’t be naive. It’s obviously a bad thing.” 

“Well, it’s not like we can stop purifying akumas,” Ladybug said. 

“We’ll figure it out,” Adrien added, and then repeated, “Together.” 

Ladybug did not look nearly as comforted the second time. “I better go,” she said.  “Take care, you two.” 

Adrien frowned, but Chloe looked close to dismayed. “I barely got to see you today. Chat and I did that second akuma all on our own.” 

Ladybug looked back at him. “I know,” she murmured. “Thank you.” She abruptly switched her gaze to Queen Bee. 

Chloe sighed. “See you around, Ladybug.” She waited for Ladybug to swing away, and then told Adrien, “Sometimes it’s like she doesn’t even notice I’m here when you’re around.” 

“Sorry,” he mumbled, staring after Ladybug, and then shook himself. “So, I should have listened to you earlier. That was my bad.” 

“That’s right, it is,” she said. “Always listen to me, Chattykins.” 

“Don’t call me that,” he corrected instantly, taking out his baton from behind his back. “It also seems to be that I’m still alive, whch means  _ you  _ lost the bet.” 

“Did I?” Chloe said airily. “I don’t recall.” 

“That means you have to throw Nino a birthday party,” Adrien reminded. “He’s thrown me a birthday party the last two years, so I super owe him-”

“Akumatized birthday parties don’t count,” Chloe interrupted. “We all ended up trapped in bubbles-”

“You promised!” 

“Fine!” she snapped. “And I know I promised to help you out with Ladybug and all, but if you guys could stop getting distracted staring into each other’s eyes for like, minutes at a time-”

“It wasn’t like that!” he interrupted hotly. 

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Sure,” she said. “So am I finally going to show you the black hole, or what?” 

“It’s not a real black-”

“Oh my god,  _ shut up.”  _

 

* * *

 

Marinette dropped through her trapdoor directly onto her bed, releasing the transformation and then burying herself in a pile of blankets and pillows. 

“Marinette?” Tikki asked from outside the blanket den, her voice slightly muffled. 

“You can come in,” she muttered. 

Tikki phased through the blankets and plopped down next to Marinette, who was curled on her side and hugging a pillow. “Marinette, what’s wrong?” 

“What’s wrong?” she echoed, swallowing. “Well, my miraculous cure is broken. The black energy I thought I’ve been purifying from akumas is actually collecting up in the sky, probably to make one big giant ultimate akuma one day that will destroy us all. Also, I made a fool of myself in front of Chat Noir, and Queen Bee, because I started having a panic attack about my miraculous cure not working. That’s basically the jist of it.” 

“Oh, Marinette,” Tikki sighed, flying up to nuzzle her cheek. “You’re going to be okay, I promise.” 

She closed her eyes, but she couldn’t cry if her eyes were already closed. “How do you know, Tikki?” 

“First of all, I would sense it if the miraculous cure was broken,” Tikki said. “It’s not your fault. The Miraculous Ladybug spell takes the energy it absorbs to reverse change, and any excess energy must be released somehow.” 

“Is this what the butterfly miraculous usually does?” 

Tikki stilled against her cheek. “I’ve never seen this before, but that’s okay. I’m sure whatever it is, we will figure out. Together.” 

Marinette sniffed. “That’s what Chat Noir said.” 

“Speaking of Chat Noir,” Tikki continued. “He and Queen Bee are your team members. They both adore you.” 

“They beat the second akuma all on their own today,” Marinette said. “Soon they won’t even need me at all.” 

“Chat Noir is a good fighter, Marinette, but they’ll always need you,” Tikki told her. 

“Technically, and just because of my powers,” she said. “It’s just luck.” 

“You’ve beaten akumas without Chat Noir multiple times,” Tikki reminded her. “Does that mean you don’t need him?”

“Well, no.” 

“Exactly,” Tikki said. “It’s okay that your teammates are growing. They will always still be there for you.” 

Marinette sighed. “You’re right, Tikki, but you don’t understand. I almost told Chat Noir how green his eyes are today.” 

“What?” 

She snapped open her eyes and sat up, dislodging the blankets (it was getting hot under there, anyway) and catching Tikki in her lap. “So I was being dumb and panicking, and Chat Noir does that thing he does where he puts both hands on your shoulders to calm you down? And he was giving me this whole speech about how we’ll figure it out - together, like you said - and then he asks if I’m alright, and then I almost said  _ your eyes are really green.”  _ She smacked herself in the face. “Of course his eyes are green! He has magic super eyes! They aren’t even his real eyes!” 

Tikki floated up to eye level. “What did you end up saying?” 

“I don’t remember,” Marinette groaned, flopping down on the bed again. “Queen Bee came back and accused us of flirting, and he got really embarrassed about it and denied the whole thing.” 

Tikki frowned. “Are you sure he denied it?” 

“Yes? No. I don’t know, we started talking about the black hole up again anyways.” 

“It’ll be okay, Marinette,” Tikki repeated. “Your team and I will always be here for you.” She hesitated, and then added, “Do you have any more cookies?” 

 

* * *

 

Marinette had devoted so much of her time to freaking out over Ladybug issues lately she hadn’t devoted any thought whatsoever to her personal issues recently, which were mostly Alya and her mysterious research project, and also Alya and continuing quest to hook Marinette up with Adrien. Adrien (who wasn’t so much a  _ problem  _ as a constant source of light in her life, and sometimes there was a need for a little shade, anyways) jump-started her personal issues the next day when he begged Nino to go return a book to the library from him, and then whirled around to drum his hands against her and Alya’s desk. 

“Hey, you two,” he said. “You were the ones that helped Nino plan my birthday party for me this year, right?” 

Marinette felt herself blush at his earnest gaze, and promptly looked back down at her notebook she had been doodling in to prevent herself from saying something stupid. 

Alya came to the rescue. “It was mostly Nino and my girl Marinette here,” she said, elbowing Marinette. 

She refused to look up. “Well, Nino’s an old friend,” she said to her notebook, clutching her pencil tightly in her hands. “And he doesn’t ask for help often.” 

“Thank you,” Adrien said earnestly, causing Marinette to look up again. Adrien’s eyes  - his actual eyes - were incredibly green, and kind, and his eyelashes -

“Are you wearing mascara?” she blurted out, and then promptly blushed from her head to her toes. 

Adrien seemed a little thrown. “Ah - yeah, I usually do. Otherwise, I’m so blond, it’s kind of creepy.”

Alya elbowed her again. “R-right,” she stammered. “I understand. I - um, Asian eyelashes, and, um. Eyes.” 

Adrien smiled at her. “You have great eyelashes, Marinette.” 

He - Adrien Agreste, sunshine personified in human form, supermodel extraordinaire, had just complimented her. Eyelashes. She could die happy. 

Alya elbowed her again -  _ ow, dammit, she was going to bruise -  _ and said smoothly, “Yes, yes she does. Adrien, did you have something you wanted to say before Nino gets back? That excuse with the library book was kinda flimsy, no offense.”

He chuckled. “None taken, you’re right. Listen, so I want to throw Nino a surprise birthday party in return, but I’m not good at stuff like this so I’m going to need help. Like, a lot of help. All the help I can get.”   __

“I’m sure you’re not that bad, Adrien,” Marinette said to her notebook once more. 

“We’re in,” Alya said immediately. “For Nino? Definitely. When and where were you thinking?”

“You know his birthday is in December,” Adrien said. “So sometime then. And my dad would never let me have a party at my place, but Chloe agreed to host-”

Marinette’s head snapped up. “Chloe  _ what?”  _

Adrien frowned at her in confusion, but before he could reply Nino stomped back into the classroom and threw himself back in the seat next to Adrien. “Remind me again why you couldn’t return your own library book, you beautiful monster?”

“I was afraid of being tardy again,” Adrien answered, straight-faced. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Nino grumbled. “Sometimes I get the feeling you’re just ditching me, dude.” 

“Nino,” Adrien gasped. “I would never!” 

“Hey, are you guys ready for the chemistry test tomorrow?” Alya cut in. Adrien threw her a mouthed  _ thank you  _ as Nino turned away. 

Marinette frowned and resolved to figure out exactly what kind of trick Chloe was playing on her friends. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chloe tries but she's just really not good at the wingman thing 
> 
> Also THANK YOU SO MUCH everyone that reviewed you guys are the light of my life


	7. Before the Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also some MariChat in here. So close

Adrien hopped inside Chloe’s window and immediately was shoved behind a curtain.

“Somebody almost saw you, you _idiot,”_ Chloe hissed, shoving the curtains closed. “Stay here and for god’s sake, detransform.”

He nodded even though he couldn’t see her, willing Plagg out of the ring as quietly as possible. Plagg took one look at their crouched position and whispered, “Hiding from girls?”

As if on cue, some high-pitched giggles sounded through the curtain.

Adrien scowled at his cupped hands, where Plagg was resting. “It’s not like that.”

“You got mobbed while trying to visit Chloe, did you?” Plagg asked. “It’s okay. Unfortunately, ladies have never been able to resist my cats-”

“Shush,” Adrien hissed. “They’ll hear you!”

“Got any cheese?” Plagg asked. “I’m bored.”

Chloe pulled back the curtain suddenly. “Sabrina and Marinette just left. It’s a miracle they were looking the other way when you came in.”

Adrien stood up and shrugged. “Bad luck on their part, I guess.”

Chloe narrowed her eyes. “Cute. What are you doing here.”

Plagg floated up out of Adrien’s hands. “Hey, Bee, you got any camembert?”

She turned her attention to the kwami. “It’s in the mini-fridge, as promised.”

Plagg whizzed away, so Adrien continued, “I just wanted to see if you want to come out.”

“I can’t,” Chloe said. “I’m busy. Daddy’s hosting a fundraiser tomorrow and I have to be there. You know what that’s like.”

He raised his eyebrows. “If it’s tomorrow, you’re free today.”

She let out an exasperated sigh. “I have to memorize a bunch of names and a speech about why all these rich people should continue donating to keep my father in office. I’m already behind because I had to make plans for your dumb party.”

Adrien pouted, but he did understand. “Fine, I guess. But we’ll never find time to work on your special power that way-”

“I don’t need my special power,” Chloe said.

“Oh, come on, Chlo. It can’t-”

“I’ll work on my special power if you work on your Miraculous Chat Noir.”

“Aw, come on,” he protested. “That’s not the same.”

“Fine.” She pouted back at him, crossing her arms. “I’ll work on my special power if you ever get anywhere with Ladybug.”

“I can’t date Ladybug!” he cried.

“Why not?” Chloe demanded. “If you want something hard enough, you’ll eventually-”

“First of all, that doesn’t work on people,” Adrien interrupted harshly. “And second of all, there’s this little problem of, I don’t know, our secret identities?”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t really get why that’s a problem. Just tell her.”

“Just - just _tell her?”_ Adrien gasped. “I can’t just tell her!”

“Why not?” Chloe asked. “We know each other’s secret identities, and nothing bad has happened to us.”

“There hasn’t really been any mind-control akumas lately,” Adrien said. “Or fundamental personality-changing akumas. We’ve been lucky.”

“Isn’t luck kind of your whole thing?” she asked skeptically, turning away finally to grab an apple from a bowl in the center of one of her tables, where a bunch of folders were laying out.

 _“Bad_ luck,” he emphasized. “And it hasn’t had that much of an effect on Hawkmoth, so...”

“Wait. So you can’t tell each other your identities until Hawkmoth is gone?”

He scowled. “I take my job seriously, Chloe.”

“And what,” she replied, “I don’t? Is that what you’re saying.”

He knew she would definitely take it the wrong way, but he didn’t quite care enough to stop himself. “Well…” he drawled.

Her mouth dropped open in shock. “You still don’t trust me!” she shrieked. “That’s why you’re always hovering over me-”

“I do not-”

“-and why you don’t listen to me!” she continued. “Well, fine. Screw you, Adrien. Go home. And if you make a ‘buzz off’ joke, so help me god-”

“Fine,” he interrupted, raising his hands in surrender. “Don’t go on patrol with me. See if I care. Plagg!”

Chloe clenched her fists at her sides and glared at him all the way out.

 

* * *

 

“Marinette,” Tikki said worriedly. “I don’t think you have enough time to spend that much of it following Chloe like you are.”

Marinette huddled further in the corner of the back of the bus and frowned down at her purse. “I’m not following Chloe, I was just checking out the situation,” she whispered.

Tikki gave her a doubtful look.

“Oh, come on,” she huffed. “Chloe? Throwing a party? For someone _else?_ She’s never been involved in anything where she hasn’t tried to be the center of attention.”

“She’s doing it as a favor to Adrien,” Tikki replied. “They both said so.”

“Chloe’s just trying to trick Adrien into thinking she’s nice so he’ll fall in love with her,” Marinette growled.

A man sitting four rows in front of her looked up from his phone, so she had to hunch down a little more in her seat and put a finger over Tikki’s mouth.  

When she finally removed her finger, Tikki whispered, “I’m on your side, Marinette, but even if Adrien does fall in love with Chloe because she’s nice to him, is there anything you could really do about it?”

“That’s why I have to act _now,”_ she said. “If I can help Adrien with his party, he’ll like me too.”

“And you can spy on Chloe,” Tikki added.

“And I can make sure Chloe doesn’t purposefully mess up Nino’s birthday,” she corrected. “Alya didn’t mind! You love Alya!”

“Of course I like your best friend, Marinette,” Tikki told her. “You’re a great judge of character. Alya has been a little secretive recently, though-”

HONK

Marinette braced herself as the bus screeched to a sudden stop. Ew, traffic. Although bus drivers were usually better than this....

The bus driver in question seemed to share her opinion. He honked the horn of the bus twice more, and shouted, “OH, COME ON!”

 _“Marinette,”_ Tikki hissed, suddenly clinging to the shoulder of her jacket right beneath her ear. Marinette startled violently as Tikki flattened her antennae to her head and pointed out the window. _“Look.”_

She followed Tikki’s instructions and gasped. “Is that...that’s an akuma! It has to be!”

“Get off the bus,” Tikki ordered. “Get off the bus, get off the bus, get off the-”

Marinette jumped forward and slammed her fist into the _emergency exit_ button next to the back doors. The bus was already stopped in traffic, anyway, so with some shoving she was able to wrench the doors open and stumble out onto the street, watching as the purple butterfly phased through the front windshield.  

 _“Marinette,”_ Tikki repeated from inside the collar of her jacket, pushing at her neck.

“I’ve just...never seen it happen before,” Marinette said, watching in morbid curiously as a purple butterfly shape appeared over the bus driver’s face. “Huh, the akuma is in his steering wheel. I wonder how that’s going to work.”

“You need to transform!” Tikkie trilled.

“I’m going, I’m going,” she mumbled, looking around for the nearest hiding place. There, that little alley between two shops, that would have to do. “Tikki, spots on!”

The first thing she did was immediately pull herself up to the rooftops of the shop buildings, and then dialed Chat Noir on her yo-yo. He didn’t pick up right away, so she called him again and again as the Bus Driver forced all cars he passed to suddenly turn onto side streets, leaving him a free path through the city, gobbling up civilians on the sidewalk into his vehicle.

He answered, finally, on the third ring. “Ladybug?”

“Chat!” she panted, hopping from one rooftop to the next as she attempted to keep the bus in sight. “You find me and then you cataclysm the bus, okay? Especially the steering wheel, but the whole bus would be nice.”

“Destroy the - you know what, I’ll just find you. I’m on my way.”

“Hurry, I need you,” she urged, and then flicked her yo-yo shut and swung her way back down to the street. “Hey!” she shouted at the bus, a plan forming in her mind. “You’ll never make a profit if you don’t stop to collect fare!”

It wasn’t the wittiest of lines - although she’d never admit it to his face, that was more of Chat Noir’s area - but it grabbed his attention all the same. Swinging away, she led the bus towards the closest public park/pedestrian only area she could think of:

The Eiffel Tower.

Chat, luckily enough, was coming from the opposite direction and leaped to meet her low on the Tower. “Ladybug!” he greeted. “Did you say you wanted me to destroy a whole bus?”

Marinette smiled; with Chat on her side, this would be the easiest akuma battle ever. She could almost kiss him -

_Wait, what?_

-she shoved the thought aside in her mind. “Definitely, the whole bus,” she agreed, “But especially the steering wheel, if you can’t handle the whole thing.”

Chat Noir looked affronted. “My lady, I know it’s rush hour, but there’s no need to publically transport your doubts-”

“You trust me, right?” she interrupted what no doubt would have been a long-winded pun-laden excuse to flirt.

Chat looked skyward. “It’s like you don’t even know me at all today.”

“Good, he’s coming,” Marinette said, re-gripping the side of the Eiffel Tower in one hand and using her yo-yo to grab Chat around the middle with the other. “Ready?”

 _“Cataclysm,”_ he murmured, and his hand erupted in black fire. “Here’s to hoping I don’t end up as roadkill, my lady.”

She smirked and flung him towards the bus.

 

* * *

 

Ladybug’s aim was as true as it always was; Adrien hit the roof of the bus hands first, the structure melting like butter beneath his palms.

Which turned out not to be a great thing in this scenario - a bus full of terrified, kidnapped people being driven by an enraged human infested with an evil butterfly - so Adrien tried the best he could to guide his cataclysm from the roof to the front windshield to the steering wheel, _but not the brakes not the brakes,_ by sheer force of will as best he could.

Ladybug must have anticipated the problem, because the trembling frame of the bus hit a constructed net between two lampposts outside the Eiffel Tower. The frame immediately melted into dust, but all the people were thankfully caught. Adrien backflipped off before he could hit and caught most of the civilians as the rolled from the net to the ground.

“Aha!” Ladybug called above them. Adrien caught the last civilian and snapped his gaze to her as her yo-yo string net vanished. “Gotcha,” she said, yo-yo snapping shut around the akuma.

And then she froze.

Adrien bounded up to her. “Nice _cat_ ch, my lady.”

“The darkness hasn’t escaped yet,” she muttered, staring down at her yo-yo.

“Well,” Adrien replied, racking his brain. “The butterfly hasn’t escaped yet either, so…”

“What am I supposed to do, just keep it in here forever?” she retorted. “I need to use this thing eventually.”

Something clicked inside his head, and he readied his baton. “I’ve got an idea, LB. Just wait here, I need to recharge.”

“What - Chat!” she shouted after him.

“I’ll be right back!” he shouted, vaulting away.

 

*

He landed in a heap at the end of his couch. “Plagg, claws in.”

Plagg shot out of his ring as the transformation dispersed in a puff of air. “Kid, tell me we didn’t just abandon Ladybug.”

“Of course we didn’t just abandon Ladybug,” Adrien huffed, reaching under the couch to grab one of his hidden iceboxes of camembert and unlocking it for Plagg. “I would never do that to anyone, especially not her.”

Plagg dove into the cheesebox and started devouring with a single-minded devotion. After a particularly loud slurping noise, he swallowed and asked, “So what is your plan, then?”

“Well, there’s that big black ball in the sky that seems to be made up of negative akuma energy,” Adrien recounted. “And Pollen said we shouldn’t touch it, because all that negative emotion could akumatize even a miraculous.”

Plagg groaned around a mouthful of cheese.

“So if we can’t do anything about the big darkness, maybe we can take out the little individual bits before they join up and stop Hawkmoth from creating some kind of superweapon,” he continued. “And who’s our resident expert on darkness and destruction? Me!”

“You mean me,” Plagg corrected, smacking his lips. “That’s some good cheese. Is that your entire plan there, kiddo? I wouldn’t even touch the little bit of energy, in case it gave Hawkmoth enough of a-”

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Adrien interrupted. “I going to cataclysm the whole yo-yo. Butterfly and all.”

Plagg’s eyes widened.

“What?” Adrien asked. “I can do it, right?”

Plagg hesitated. “Well, technically. But she won’t like it. Make sure Ladybug isn’t touching the yo-yo at all, ok? Otherwise you could really hurt her.”

He nodded. “Got it. Claws out!”

 

* * *

 

Both Queen Bee and Chat Noir were getting in the really annoying habit of running away before they explained what they were thinking. Luckily, the Eiffel Tower was pretty easy to climb even with her yo-yo clenched shut in one hand. She sat on one of the top platforms, brooding and feeling the butterfly wiggle in its captivity in her fist.

If Tikki could talk right now, she’d probably tell her not to worry. _Your teammates love you, Marinette. Chat’s time was just running out, Marinette. He’s coming back, Marinette. No need to be jealous, Marinette. No one must ever know your secret, Marinette._

She pressed her head into her knees and let out a little whining noise, just focusing on her heartbeat a little bit. “I can do it,” she muttered to herself, straightening up. People were probably watching her, anyways. “I can do it. I’m Ladybug.” She tried to distracting herself by calling Queen Bee, but there was no answer.

It’s not like she’d never run into battle with an akuma without filling Chat in, but it was less annoying when she did it.

Chat came back in about 10 minutes. “My lady,” he said smoothly, plopping down next to her as she stared over Paris.

“Hey,” she said. “Where’s Queenie today?”

“She has to work,” he answered, and then held out his hand. “Can I see your yo-yo?”

Carefully, she handed over her closed yo-yo, which twitched every once in awhile from the butterfly inside. “I’m paranoid Hawkmoth can still see things out of it,” she admitted. “What’s your idea?”

He clutched the yo-yo to his chest, hesitating. “I’m going to destroy it,” he told her finally.

Marinette frowned. “What?” she paused. “No, really, what’s your idea?”

Chat Noir leaned away from her. “My kwami said it should work,” he said. “And it won’t hurt you. I’ll make sure you get home safe, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Everything inside her was recoiling, and she resisted the urge to flinch. “Is that really what you think is best?” she asked quietly.

“Trust me,” he said, eyes flicking up to meet hers. “I can destroy it, I promise.”

She did trust Chat Noir. Unhesitantly, unflinchingly. “Do it,” she agreed.

He smiled at her - with his mouth, with his eyes, with his ears, with his tail. A full-body smile. “ _Cataclysm,”_ he whispered, and touched her yo-yo with his right hand.

It felt - well, she couldn’t feel it, precisely, but her stomach was jumping like she was going to throw up, and she suddenly was shaky and jittery all over. Her yo-yo crumbled into ash in Chat’s hand just like anything else, albeit slightly redder ash. “Ladybug,” he said, looking over at her with concern. “You alright?”

She pushed herself to her feet. “I’m fine,” she said, and then her earrings let out a shrill two beeps. “That might have taken it out of Tikki, though. I better make this quick. _Lucky Charm!”_

She held up her hands expectantly, but nothing happened.

“Oh, no,” Chat moaned below her.

 _“LUCKY CHARM!”_ she repeated, and a yo-yo seemed to reluctantly pop into existence and fall into her hands.

“Well,” Chat said, “Now we know. Lucky charm first.”

“MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!” Marinette screamed, hurling the yo-yo into the air with all her might. To her relief, the stream of ladybugs flew out, placing all the cars back in the streets fully repaired, and recreating a bus below her. “Phew,” she breathed. “What if...oh, poor Tikki. We are never doing that again.”

Chat chuckled and rose to his feet as her earrings let out four beeps. “Need a lift anywhere, Ladybug?”

“A dark corner near a metro station would be nice,” she agreed, looping her arms around his neck as he vaulted down. “And hurry.”

“It’s not really likely to be quiet anywhere nearby,” Chat said. “4:00 p.m. in the center of Paris on a Friday-”

He was interrupted by her earrings letting out five beeps. “Merde,” she muttered, swinging herself around to ride on Chat’s back instead, piggyback style. “Just - an alley, anywhere. Now. Now, now, now, now-”

He wasn’t going to make it. Marinette loosened her grip, preparing to just jump for a roof and wait it out, when Chat reached up with his free hand and grabbed her by the wrist. “It’s too dangerous!” he yelled. “Just give me 30 more seconds-”

“I don’t have 10 seconds!” she yelled back.

“Trust me!” he yelled.

She didn’t have the time not too. “Just don’t look!” she shrieked into his human ear, squinting her eyes to keep his hair out. With a pink flash of light, her suit peeled off, and she reached out with the hand Chat was not keeping pressed to his chest to grab Tikki and hold her close.

Chat took three more leaps and fell down finally into a deserted alleyway, standing stock-still as Marinette slid down his back until her feet touched the floor. His suit was very unforgiving against her suddenly normal clothes, and she straightened her top as soon as she could. “You’re not looking, are you?”

His ring let out one beep. “No,” he said. “Eyes tight shut, my lady.”

Steeling herself, she took a stop away from Chat, but he didn’t move aside from one errant ear twitch. “I better go then,” she said, sliding an exhausted Tikki back into her purse.

He was almost unnaturally still. “See you around, LB.”

Her hands itched to touch his ears - they looked leather, but they were definitely alive, and what if they were actually soft like a kitten’s - but she couldn’t. That would be bad, she shouldn’t even be hanging around Chat like this, asking to get caught -

His ring beeped twice. “Ladybug?” he asked hesitantly.

“I better go,” she said, surprised to find her voice somewhat regretful. “Bye, Chat.”

“Take care, my lady,” he replied.

 

* * *

 

Adrien actually was supposed to be working that night, and he was fairly close to his Father’s building, anyways, so (after stopping to buy Plagg some cheese) he texted Gorilla his location and made his way up the Gabriel building, which often felt a lot a like his second home. Probably because his Father had decorated both of them, but still.

He gossiped with Plagg about Ladybug in the stairwell to kill time. The fashion show he was working tonight wasn’t until 8 p.m., and his call time wasn’t until 7, so he had a few hours. “And in conclusion,” Adrien finished, “That is the comprehensive list of cute things that Ladybug did today.”

Plagg bashed his head against the window a few more times. “I get it, you love Ladybug, she’s the light of your life, the best thing since sliced bread, Ladybug, Ladybug, Ladybug, LADYBUG. Please tell me it’s over. Please, kid, please, if you ever liked me at all, tell me it is time for your little prancing job thingy.”

Adrien glanced at his phone. “It’s 5:30.”

Plagg groaned and started beating his head against the window again.

“Hey, be careful,” Adrien told him. “Your head is, like, 50% of your body.”

“Just put an end to me,” Plagg moaned. “I can’t stand listening to you sap on about your human romantic notions for one more second.”

“Fine, I’m done, I’m done,” Adrien said, reaching out and letting Plagg rest on his hand. “Since we’re here, maybe I’ll go see my Father and see if he wants to eat dinner together. If nothing’s gone wrong with the show - and Natalie’s managing it, so nothing will - he should be locked up in his office and in need of a reminder to eat.”

“Eating?” Plagg perked up. “Now you’re talking.”

Adrien smirked and brought Plagg up to sit on his shoulder, and then bound up the stairs two at a time until he reached the top floor and Plagg wiggled down into his shirt pocket. Adrien’s father wasn’t the only one working late today - Adrien waved hi to the C.F.O as he passed, before finally reaching his father’s office and knocking.

“Who is it?”

“Father, it’s me, Adrien,” Adrien said, reaching for the doorknob and letting himself in.

His father glanced up from his computer. “Adrien. You’re here.”

“I was a bit too eager for the show tonight, I guess.” Adrien shrugged, answering the unspoken question. “I was wondering if you wanted to grab dinner?”

“Adrien,” his father said, “It’s a bit early for dinner.”

“Maybe later, then,” Adrien agreed. “Or, um, maybe, do you need help with anything?”

Father frowned at him - probably for the stuttering, but Adrien forced himself not to look away from his father’s gaze. “Maybe you can help the assistants pick out what we’re having for dinner,” his father said eventually.

“I would love that!” Adrien agreed enthusiastically.

“I usually eat at my desk at busy times like these,” Father continued. “However, in this instance, it may be just as productive to move to a conference room and continue my work there.”

That was basically an open invitation. “Yes, of course, Father,” Adrien said, beaming, clasping his hands behind his back. “I’ll make all the arrangements.”

“Thank you, Adrien,” Father said. “I’ll see you in a half an hour.”

Adrien had food delivered - some no-nonsense baguette sandwiches he knew his father preferred, with a few cookies for dessert set aside in case he was feeling generous - and laid it all out in his favorite conference room, the corner one with all the windows he knew Chloe’s mom had preferred, back when she worked here. Satisfied, he went back to fetch his father, who was in a good enough mood to leave behind his computer and only bring one paper notepad with him.  

Father paused when he noticed Adrien’s choice of venue. “The Juliette Bourgeois room.”

“I like the view,” Adrien said awkwardly, hurrying around the table to serve some food. “Baguette?”

His father took his food and his seat perfunctorily. “How is Chloe doing? You’ve seen her recently, yes?”

“We’re in the same class at school, Father,” Adrien replied. “I see her everyday.” He’d never told his father that Chloe had been the one to encourage him to try going to public school - even Chloe wouldn’t be safe from his father’s wrath if he knew. “Actually, Chloe’s dad is having a fundraiser tonight, so she’s been busy preparing for that.”

“Is he,” Father said mildly, staring down at his notebook. “I don’t know if you remember, but we used to attend of a few of his campaign events.”

That was before Chloe’s dad had been mayor, before Chloe’s mom had died, and especially before Adrien’s mother had vanished. “I remember,” Adrien said awkwardly.

The rest of the meal passed in near silence, and by that time it was late enough for Adrien to head down to the show, anyways.

“Thank you for dinner, Father,” Adrien called over his shoulder. “See you on the catwalk.”

His father looked him up and down. “Break a leg,” he replied, almost hesitantly, “Son.”

 

* * *

 

Marinette stopped back home just long enough to grab a quick dinner, so her parents wouldn’t worry about her, and then went straight to Master Fu’s. Tikki didn’t protest - she’d been sleepily downing cookies ever since she woke up - so Marinette knew she was doing the right thing.

She had a severe case of deja vu when she walked in the doorway of Fu’s massage parlor and bumped straight into… “Alya?”

Alya leapt backwards, cradling her hands to her chest. “Marinette?”

“What are you doing here?” Marinette asked, looking around to make sure she hadn’t somehow wandered back to school. No, it was definitely the entrance to the massage parlor.

Alya’s eyes widened to comical size behind her glasses. “What am I doing here? Just...um...getting a massage. You know.”

“I didn’t know you were in the neighborhood,” Marinette said, forcing herself to release her death grip on her purse strap and act casual. “We could have hang out.”

“What are you doing here, Marinette?” she asked.

Marinette swallowed. “Master Fu is one of the regulars at the bakery,” she explained, proud of how smooth her lie sounded. “My parents had a question about a special order, and since I’m just down the street I thought I’d pop by.”

Alya nodded. “Right, right. Of course. I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

“Of course,” she agreed.

“Later, girl,” Alya said, hurrying away.

Marinette stared down the street after her. This was a weird collision of her miraculous and regular lives, and it was almost as unsettling as -

In her purse, Tikki coughed. “Can we go in now, Marinette?”

She shook herself. “Right, of course, Tikki,” Marinette said, hurrying inside. “You’ll be feeling better in no time!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you guys remember the episode when Jagged Stone walks in and Mayor Bourgouis says, "Who are you, ruffian?" and Chloe says, "No, Daddy, that's Jagged Stone, he's rich, he's a world famous rock star?" My new headcannon is that Chloe helps her dad out by not only helping his public image but also knowing all the names of all the people he's supposed to know. 
> 
> Also that Chloe's mom was a fashion designer, but we'll get to that later. 
> 
> Anyways, this chapter goes out to all my reviewers. you are my inspiration


	8. Chat Noir vs. Ladybug

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is growing out of control???

Obviously, Adrien didn’t want to test the limits of Ladybug’s powers - the fact that she’d had to call for lucky charm twice the last time he’d cataclysm-ed her yoyo proved that she was dangerously close to a magic imbalance herself, and the last thing he wanted was for Ladybug’s transformation to suddenly fail.

Ladybug didn’t seem to even want to talk about the issue, and Adrien knew how much she liked to be in control of things, so he didn’t push the subject. Especially with this akuma, anyways.

“I am King Bee!” he howled to the wind. “If anyone should have been given the new miraculous, it should have been _me!”_

Adrien didn’t know how long the akuma victim and Chloe had been fighting by the time he got there, but he was willing to bet it was at least a little while, judging by the way Ladybug was stuck to the side of Le Grand Paris hotel by some honey-looking substance.

“Chat!” she called.

He vaulted over to her. “Well, well. Looks like someone’s got themselves in a bit of a sticky situation."

“Ha-ha,” she deadpanned. Her entire body was coated in the amber substance; only her neck remained free. “Just get me out of here, would you?”

“Sure thing, honey,” he said, winking at her. “Cataclysm!”

Chloe crashed into the ground behind them.  “Yeah, sure, make the new girl fight all by herself while you two stand around making heart-eyes at each other,” she scoffed. “That sounds like a good plan.”   

“It was his fault!” Ladybug shrieked, sprinting into action.

Adrien ambled over and helped Chloe to her feet as Ladybug called for a Lucky Charm in midair. “Sorry, Queenie,” he apologized. “I would have gotten here faster, but I was held up at-”

“I don’t care,” she interrupted. “I’ve spent the last hour fighting someone who’s better at being me than I am, and I’m tired.”

“Happens to the best of us,” Adrien said.

Ladybug swooped down to borrow Chat’s staff, used her lucky charm - a matchbook - to set a towel drying from a balcony on fire, using the staff to carry it, and smoked King Bee into a corner so Chloe could snatch his toy top - a perfect mirror of her trompo - and smash it.

“Bye-bye, little butterfly,” Ladybug chanted. She glanced over at Chat, but he had already used his cataclysm, so it wasn’t like they could enact their backup plan, anyways.

After a quick three-way fist bump, Adrien turned around and started running home as fast as he could. He was already pretty low on time, and before the battle he’d had to run out in the middle of a scheduling meeting with Natalie, claiming he was supposed to be watching a seminar live online for homework - which was a terrible excuse, it was a miracle if she hadn’t checked up on him in the meantime.

But Ladybug had needed him, so he went.

Adrien was barreling across the rooms on his street when he noticed a black dot following him. “Plagg,” he called out casually, and then froze.

He was transformed. Plagg was in the ring.

He whipped around, but the black dot was nowhere to be seen. Hackles raised, he looked around for it before being interrupted by the 5th beep of his ring.

He swore to himself as he hopped down and hid behind a dumpster to detransform. Heart racing, he held up his hands to let Plagg land on them as he spiraled out of the ring.

“Plagg,” he hissed. “I think Hawkmoth is following - what if he -”

Plagg just stared at him with drooping green eyes. “Just get me some cheese, kid,” he interrupted. “Queen Bee’s trying to call you again. I’m guessing there’s a second akuma.”

 

* * *

 

“You know,” Queen Bee said, carrying Marinette by the armpits. “I think I’m actually getting good at this.”

Marinette hummed in agreement, swinging her yo-yo. The second akuma victim of the day was currently distracted by Chat, so it was easily to snag the cursed air-conditioner manual right out their hands and into Marinette’s own, where she started ripping pages out with abandon.

“Aha,” she exclaimed as the purple butterfly appeared, flipping forward out of Queen Bee’s grasp and trapping it inside the yo-yo as she landed on the ground.

Chat bounded up next to her. “ _Air_ n’t you glad we’re a team, my lady?”

Marinette rolled her eyes and started the motion to cleanse the akuma, but was stopped when Chat’s hand reached over and clenched down over the top of her yo-yo. “Um,” he said, looking at her expectantly. “What are you doing?”

Marinette tugged the bottom half of her yo-yo, but Chat didn’t budge. “I’m cleansing the akuma,” she replied.

Chat raised his eyebrows behind his mask. “But I didn’t have to destroy anything this time. I still have my power.”

“And _I’m_ still going to cleanse it,” Marinette said, glaring.

“I thought we weren’t going to do that anymore, if we had the choice.”

Queen Bee touched down beside them as Marinette continued, “We don’t have a choice. My kwami got pretty sick last time I tried to do the miraculous cure without cleansing the akuma. The magic doesn’t balance that way. If I don’t cleanse the akuma, I won’t be able to do the cure.”

“Okay,” Chat said slowly, frowning. “So don’t do the cure.”

Queen Bee’s head snapped to him. “What?” she and Marinette screeched in unison.

Chat tugged on the yo-yo, but Marinette didn’t let go. “Come on, guys,” he said. “This akuma wasn’t that bad.”

“He leaked air conditioner fluid all over the city!”

“He leaked _water,”_ Chat said.

“Well, he also broke all the air conditioners in the 12th arrondissement,” Marinette said. “We have to fix it.”

“It’s the end of October,” Chat said. “Some repairmen will have some more business, they have all winter-”

“I have to fix everything!” she exclaimed.

Chat frowned at her. “We have to stop Hawkmoth.”

“We don’t even know what the hole in the sky does!” Marinette continued.

“Well,” he said, “as the resident expert on dark forces, I can tell you it’s not good. Hawkmoth is up to something. I can’t get rid of it, and you obviously can’t-”

“So what,” Marinette said, swallowing a lump in her throat. “I’m a bad Ladybug, is that what you’re saying?”

“No!” Chat protested.

“Then you’re a bad Chat Noir?!”

“Stop being so defensive here, Ladybug!” he shouted. “It’s not - I’m just trying - my way worked the other day, okay? Don’t you trust me?”

“Stop asking me that!” Marinette snapped. “You know I do, but trust isn’t the same as - it’s not blind trust! If I stop being able to do a miraculous cure, then Paris won’t trust us!”

“Paris will get over it,” Chat said. “Ladybug, please. This is the way to fight Hawkmoth.”

She wrenched again on her yo-yo again, but he didn’t budge. “Well, I disagree,” Marinette declared, something catching in her throat. She pushed away the thought that Chat Noir had rarely, if ever, refused to go along with her way of thinking before.

Chat Noir’s tail lashed back and forth behind him. “Queenie,” he called suddenly. “What do you think?”

Queen Bee stiffened as both Marinette and Chat Noir turned to her direction. “What?”

“Queen Bee,” Marinette said stiffly. “If you could please tell Chat Noir to _let go of my yoyo-”_

“Would you just stop and _think about this for one second?”_ Chat Noir hissed.

Marinette bared her teeth as Queen Bee spoke quietly, “Um. What?”

“If I destroy the yo-yo, the darkness won’t escape and join the big black hole in the sky,” Chat said quickly.

“If he cataclysms the yo-yo, then I can’t do a Miraculous cure.”

“Even if your lucky charm is already out?” Chat asked her, frowning.

Marinette glared back. “Yes. It hurts Tikki.”

Queen Bee looked back and forth between them. “Um,” she said.

“Come on, Queenie,” Chat said. “You’re the one who discovered the hole in the sky in the first place. You must want it gone.”

She looked conflicted. “Well, yes.”

Chat Noir and Queen Bee were twins, so of course she was going to side with Chat. Marinette steeled herself and pulled on the yo-yo harder. “Stop acting like this is a group decision,” she snapped. “It’s my yoyo, my powers, my call.”

Chat’s ears pressed back flat against his head. “I thought we were a team,” he said.  

“Guys, don’t fight,” Queen Bee said. “Is there someone else who can do it? Or maybe we can just wait. Until tomorrow!”

“Chat, let _go,”_ Marinette ordered.

He stared at her for a second. “Ladybug, please,” he said. “I can’t let Hawkmoth win.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Neither can I,” she said, and swung herself down in between Chat’s legs, flipping him over.

 

* * *

 

Adrien swore as Ladybug flipped him, losing his grip on the yo-yo because he simply didn’t bend that way. He instinctively reached for his staff behind his back mid air, landing on his feet and launching the staff like a javelin to knock the yo-yo away from Ladybug in the middle of her swing. It was knocked out of her hands and landed with a clatter behind her.  

She whirled on him. “Chat!” she snarled.

This was his chance. Ladybug wasn’t touching the yo-yo anymore, so he could cataclysm it without hurting her. He took one step forward and then pounced over her, clearing her easily -

-except Ladybug grabbed him by the tail in mid air, bringing them both crashing to the street.

“You guys!” Chloe shouted somewhere behind them, sounding distressed.

Adrien had vague recollections of fighting Ladybug before - while he had been under the control of one akuma or another - but this wasn’t like anything ever before. He grunted as he and Ladybug tumbled over and over each other, narrowly avoiding kicks and elbows as neither of them were willing to let go.

“Why are-” Ladybug grabbed him by the bell around his neck and tried to swing him away, but Adrien wrapped one leg around hers and rolled on top so she couldn’t get leverage. “-you fighting me on this?”

Adrien grabbed one of Ladybug’s pigtails and got punched in the jaw. “Ow!” he yelled. “Why are you trying to pretend like nothing’s wrong?” He let go of her hair to block another punch with his wrist-guard. “We can’t keep doing the same old thing!”

Ladybug kneed him in the gut and pushed him off of her, making it one step towards the yo-yo before Adrien snagged her ankle and brought her crashing down again. “There are rules, Chat!” she shrieked. “If we let Hawkmoth break the city every time, people will panic-”

“People should know what’s coming!” Adrien yelled. He tried to throw Ladybug, but she flipped herself around tried to dislodge his hold on her. “You know what? You’re being a real - _Ministry of Magic in the Order of the Phoenix right now!”_

:Ladybug pulled back, gasping. “I am _not!”_ she exclaimed. “You’re being - Mrs. Norris!”

“How?” he asked. “Just because she’s a cat?”

“Just go away, Chat!” she shouted, rolling herself over.

Adrien - who was holding her by an ankle and elbow - followed. They landed dangerously close to the yo-yo now, Ladybug on her back with her far hand free and Adrien with a precarious hold on her. He could tell Ladybug was looking at it, judging the distance - she just needed to press a button -

 _“Cataclysm,”_ he bellowed, peeling his top hand off Ladybug to activate the spell. He’d been depending on his longer reach to get to the yo-yo first, but as his hand passed over Ladybug’s face, she flinched, and he slammed down on the thing without any competition.

The yo-yo disintegrated into dust, and Ladybug’s earrings let out five beeps.

She brought up both knees and kicked him in the chest, sending him flying high in the air. Adrien landed in a heap next to Chloe and was hit the diaphragm a second later by Ladybug chucking her staff at him. Winded, he watched as Ladybug glared at him…

_Had her angry look always been so sad?_

...before she ran away to detransform.

“Oh, Chatikins,” Chloe said, reaching down to fix his hair. “What have you done?”

 

* * *

 

Alya would have been able to tell something was wrong, so Marinette put her on distraction duty. “Just hang out with Nino for a while so I can talk to Adrien about the cake for the surprise party.”

“That’s what I thought you said,” Alya said, eyebrows raised. “Are you sure you can handle Adrien all by yourself?”

“He’s just a boy, Alya,” Marinette snapped.

“Just a boy?” Alya echoed incredulously. “Who are you,and-”

“He’s just a stupid boy and I can handle stupid boys!” Marinette hissed, interrupting. She took one look at Alya’s face and immediately deflated. “I’m sorry, Alya. I just didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, and when I couldn’t sleep I stayed up drew a lot of cake designs and I want to talk to Adrien before I lose my nerve. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

Alya gave her a half smile. “Don’t sweat it, girl.”

So Alya took Nino away (to flirt, probably, but she wasn’t judging) and Marinette sidled up next to Adrien on the steps of the school. “Hey,” she said, looking down at him, and then promptly looked away as she sat down because his hair reminded her a little too much of a certain cat’s. “I have cakes for you.”

“Cakes?” his voice asked curiously as Marinette rummaged through her backpack to pull out her sketches. She looked over, heart warming at his small little smile. “Those aren’t on my diet, you know.”

“Cakes should be on everyone’s diet,” Marinette replied seriously, and he laughed. His hair was carefully combed into place, and she was starting to fight down a blush and the urge to stammer when she caught sight of his eyes -

_Green eyes narrowed above her with a palm full of destruction -_

Marinette shook herself, glancing back down at her sketches. Adrien had beautiful green eyes, sure, but they were much lighter than Chat’s. Besides, Chat probably didn’t even have green eyes in real life. His cat eyes were magic, and his twin sister had blue eyes, which were much more common. He probably had blue eyes and was wandering around there somewhere not feeling like he’d been stabbed in the back.

_Not the time._

“I don’t have actual cake,” Marinette continued, passing Adrien three pages. “These are just some cake concepts, since I had a bunch of dramatic inspiration last night, and I assumed I would be the one making and frosting it-”

“Oh, Marinette,” Adrien said, frowning. “You don’t have to if you don’t-”

“Too late,” she said. “Inspiration has already struck. I’m doing it. So, cake number one…” she pulled the paper to the top of the pile on Adrien’s lap. “It’s a testament to yours and Nino’s friendship. I know I drew it in colored pencil on that page, but pretend it’s that fancy watercolor frosting. Now, I took a few liberties since I don’t know the exact details of what all you and Nino have done together, but it starts with you two meeting in the top left corner and ends with his birthday in the bottom right.”  

Adrien pointed to a picture in the top middle. “What is that?”

“That’s the time you and Nino went bungee jumping off the roof of your house.”

Adrien gave her a look.

“What?” she asked. “Nino mentioned you have a zip line in your room, and...you know what, it seemed like something you guys would do last night at 3 in the morning. I’m very sleep deprived right now.”

“This is a brilliant cake,” Adrien said. “But it seems like it’d be a lot of work for something that would just get eaten by a horde of teenagers in 10 seconds, and I don’t want to put you out like that.”

“Oh, man,” Marinette said, tugging on one of her pigtails anxiously. “Well, the second concept was a life-size statue of Nino made out of cake, I’m guessing you wouldn’t like that either?”

Adrien laughed. It still reminded her of Chat. She hated it.

“Okay, cake number three,” Marinette said quickly, taking the other two drawings back from Adrien. “It’s a sheet cake, decorated to look like a turntable. I can write happy 16th birthday on it.”

Adrien held the picture of the cake up. “It’s perfect,” he declared dramatically. “I love it. Are you sure I can’t pay you?”

“I wasn’t paid when I made the cake for your birthday party,” she said.

“I can pay you for that too,” Adrien said hurriedly.

“No, no, that wasn’t what I meant!” she cried. “Sorry, I’m just sleep deprived. Have I mentioned that already? Don’t pay me. I’m not nearly as good as my parents are, so it’s not even a real bakery cake. ”   

“The cake at my birthday party was the best cake I’ve ever had in my entire life,” Adrien told her. “Marinette, you’re amazing.”

“Ha,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Aren’t you a rich and famous model? Don’t you each the world’s fanciest cake all the time?”

“Models don’t eat,” he joked, giving her a small smile.  

She echoed his expression, feeling her heart flip a little inside her chest. _Wow, he’s cute._

“Hey,” Adrien said suddenly. “Chloe said you’ve been volunteering to help her with other stuff for the party too, ordering decorations or whatever, and I wanted to say thanks. I know Chloe’s a little rough around the edges, but she wants to try to make more friends.”

Marinette, who was busy staring dreamily at Adrien’s face, took a few seconds for the words to register. “You’re welcome,” she said dazedly, before frowning. “Wait. Chloe wants to what?”

“Chloe’s trying to make more friends,” Adrien said, still smiling at her like the little ray of sunshine he was. “That’s one of the reasons she’s helping me out with Nino’s party. She wants to make up with everyone in the class.”

Red alerts started blaring in the back of Marinette’s head, but she plastered a smile on her face. Chloe could lie to sweet, innocent Adrien. “Right,” she said,pushing herself up. “I’m going to go talk to Chloe right now, actually.”

“I’ll go with you!” Adrien said, rocking up to his feet. “I think I saw her and Sabrina inside-”

 _“No,”_ Marinette shouted, panicking when she saw Adrien flinch a little. “I mean, that’s not necessary. I can do it on my own. I mean. Stay here?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Adrien said. “It’s not like I have anything better to do. Come on, let’s go.”

Marinette took a deep breath and reluctantly followed him up the steps and inside the school, where Adrien made a beeline towards Chloe. “Hey, Chlo,” he greeted easily. “Hi, Sabrina.”

Chloe regarded them coolly as Sabrina chirped, “Hi, guys. What’s up?”

Adrien looked over his shoulder for Nino. “I just wanted to check in about the party,” he said. “Marinette has this awesome cake idea-”

“It’s just a party, Adrikins,” Chloe drawled. “The hotel hosts literally dozens of them a week.”

“But this is a party for Nino,” Adrien whined. “Chloe, it has to be perfect.”

“It’s going to be,” Chloe said. “Who do you think I am?”

“Don’t worry, everyone knows who you are,” Marinette muttered under her breath. Evidently not quietly enough, because three heads swiveled in her direction.

“ _What_ was that?” Chloe snapped

She plastered a smile on her face. “Nothing, Chloe. I just wanted to let you know I’m taking care of the cake.”

“Oh, that’s awesome!” Sabrina said.

Chloe narrowed her eyes. “Thank you, Marinette,” she said icily. Somehow the words managed to sounded disdainful. “I’ll let you know if I need anything else.”

“I’m here to help,” Marinette said back, then waved to Sabrina and Adrien and walked away.

 

* * *

 

She went straight home after school, saying hi to her parents for a moment and then bouncing up to her room so she could talk to Tikki.

Tikki, for her part, just floated out of her purse and observed Marinette from midair. “Are you feeling ok, Marinette?”

“I’m fine,” Marinette said, pacing back and forth. “Are you okay?”

“You didn’t push any magic into overbalance,” Tikki told her, repeated what she had told Marinette when they’d gotten home from the akuma fight yesterday. “You didn’t try to cast anything after Chat Noir destroyed the yo-yo, so I’m fine.”

Marinette flinched at Chat Noir’s name. “If you say so.”

“I’m sure,” Tikki said, floating closer. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“There’s technically nothing wrong!” Marinette said loudly, widening her hands.

Tikki stared at her. “Do you want to be alone?”

“No,” Marinette said sharply, and then, “Yes. No. Maybe. I want..” She made an aborted gesture to the window. “I want to go out as Ladybug. For a little swing.”

“Okay,” Tikki said.

“But I _can’t,”_ Marinette hissed, pulling on her pigtails. “If I go out, people will see me, and then people will know, and what if I run into _him.”_

“I’m sorry, Marinette,” Tikki said. “Ladybugs have never been very sneaky.”

“But it’s also stupid not to go out just because of _him,_ right?” Marinette said. “I mean, he’s not out to hurt _me,_ specifically. Even if he is a giant great big idiot, he’s doing what he thinks is right. I mean, he’s still,” she closed her eyes and grimaced. “ _Chat._ He’s still Chat.”

“Marinette,” Tikki said. “You barely got any sleep last night. Maybe instead of going out, you should take a nap.”

Marinette shook her head back and forth. “Oh, no, Tikki. I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because every time I close my eyes, I see _him,”_ Marinette said, collapsing on her settee. “I just can’t do it, I can’t, I can’t I can’t I can’t I can’t-”

“Marinette,” Tikki said, dropping down on her knee. “You can do anything. I believe in you.”

She nodded, blinking and biting her lip, and to her horror felt a tear sliding down her cheek. “How could he do this to me, Tikki?” she whispered. “He was - Chat was my _partner._ How could he do this to us?

 

* * *

 

Adrien hadn’t seen Ladybug or Queen Bee in few days, which was probably to be expected. Ladybug had never run around as much through the city on their off days as he had, and Chloe (who, even though she understood his reasons, was flabbergasted that he and Ladybug had actually come to blows) had been avoiding Chat Noir too.

Adrien’s daily patrol usually consisted of locating the black hole (it was very close to his house today, scarily enough) and then running around town trying to track down anything else suspicious, like other tiny black dots following him around. Who knew what other tricks Hawkmoth had up his sleeve?

So far, there was nothing. Well, there was a general dog-like smell on some rooftops that Adrien swore was getting stronger, but other then that, nothing.

 

* * *

 

There weren’t any more akuma attacks for the next several days, so Marinette didn’t go out as Ladybug again until Tikki informed her Queen Bee was calling.

“Alright,” Marinette said, steeling herself. “Tikki, transform me!”

She hopped up onto the nearest rooftop and flicked open her yo-yo. “Queenie, what’s up? Is there an attack?”

“No attack, Ladybug,” Queen Bee said. “I was just wondering if we could talk.”

Marinette swallowed. She should have been expecting this. “Sure. There’s a building with a flat roof across from the park, do you know it?”  

Queen Bee nodded. “I’ll see you soon.”

Marinette beat her there, taking the extra moments to collect herself. Just because Queen Bee was Chat Noir’s sister didn’t mean she was automatically on his side, right?

“Ladybug!” Queen Bee called, touching down next to her. “Thank god you’re okay, I was so worried-”

Marinette leaped forward and hugged her, squeezing Queenie’s frame as tight as she could. “Queen Bee,” she said, giving her one last squeeze before stepping backwards. “I’m glad to see you too.”

Queen Bee seemed surprised at her ferocity - then again, Marinette was surprised at that herself. “I don’t agree with what Chat did,” she said. “Just because he thinks he’s right doesn’t mean he has the right. It is your miraculous power.”

Marinette almost felt like crying with relief. Damn, she’s been weepy lately. “Thanks, Queenie,” she said, giving the other girl a small smile.

Queen Bee beamed at her. “Don’t mention it, Ladybug. He’s always been that way. If he has the power to do something, then he has to do it, and damn the consequences.” She looked over in the direction of the Eiffel tower. “Maybe it’s a family thing. Actually, maybe it’s because he didn’t have a lot of power growing up.”

“You don’t have to explain it,” Marinette said. “Just...thank you. I’ve never...Chat and I have rarely fought before.”

“Well, that’s because he thinks the sun shines out of your - nevermind. He’ll get over it,” Queenie promised. “I’ll grab the butterfly and hold onto it myself if he tries-”

_ “No!” _ Marinette shouted, which such ferocity than Queen Bee took a step back. “ _ Never  _ touch an uncleansed akuma with your bare hand. That’s how Hawkmoth wins you over, and we can’t risk it.”  

“Sorry,” Queen Bee said, frowning. 

Marinette felt guilty. “You’re new, you didn’t know.” she said, stepping forward and throwing one arm across Queen Bee’s shoulders. “Hey, until the alley cat gets over himself, what do you say it’s just us girls from now on? Who needs him, right? Team Insects!” 

Queen Bee stared at her. “Really?”

“Really,” Marinette confirmed.

Queenie squealed and bounced up and down in delight. “I have _literally_ had dreams about this moment,” she gushed. “Although we’re going to need a way better team name.”  

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew, man. I'm a fan of rival AUs, but getting ladybug and chat noir to fight without breaking character is no short order 
> 
> Thanks so much to all my commenters! you guys rock
> 
> Update: edited 3/25/18


	9. Unfortunate Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Adrien is not self conscious about throwing around his money and there are more akumas and a love confession.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout to the special person who predicted one of the lines in the scene.

Queen Bee was no Chat Noir.

She was very close in some ways. “Can you _beeleive_ this, Ladybug?” she’d sneer at akumas, crossing her arms in midair and looking decidedly unimpressed. “You _hive_ got to be kidding me.”

“Less puns, more fighting!” Marinette would shout, swinging from perch to perch.

In other ways-

“Follow my lead,” Marinette whispered, pointing down at the akuma below them and preparing to jump. “One, two, three!”

She fell straight down onto the akuma, reaching for the enchanting object before a minion headbutted her and sent her flying 20 yards.

“Ah!” she screamed as she landed, rolling and pushing herself up onto her feet. “Queenie, why didn’t you get him?!”

Queen Bee darted over, catching her rebounded tropo as she took down the henchman a second too late. “Sorry, sorry. I thought you were going to say go.”

“What?”

“Well, you went on three. I thought we would go on go.”

“Always go on three!” Marinette shouted, and then spotted Chat’s silhouette approaching on the rooftops. “Merde. We’ve got company.”

 

* * *

 

The first time few times it happened, Adrien honestly believed it was a mistake. Chloe and Ladybug must have been absorbed into the akuma battles too fast to call him, or maybe they had just reverted back to his and Ladybug’s old system of just stumbling onto battles whenever they could without bothering each other. Sure, things were a little tense now - Ladybug seemed to go out of her way to require him to use his Cataclysm early on, and the few times he hadn’t needed it they’d had a few more fights - but they could work together despite that, he thought.

He didn’t actually figure it out until he was over at Chloe’s one day figuring out last-minute party details and Pollen tried to sneakily signal her charge. _Tried_ being (ha, bee-ing) the optimum word, seeing as Pollen was a bee and made a little buzzing noise whenever she flew. Most people wouldn’t have been able to pick it up, but Adrien wasn’t most people.

He rounded on Pollen before Chloe even noticed her kwami. “What are you doing?”

Pollen let out a little trill of annoyance. “Nothing you need to worry about, kitten.” She shot Chloe a look.

“What is it?” Adrien demanded again, looking between Pollen and Chloe, whose face had gone blank.

“Girl problems,” Chloe said, standing up and gesturing for Pollen to follow her. “Emergency girl problems. You wouldn’t understand. Girl thing.” She dashed out of the room before Adrien could get a word in. “I’ll be back later!”

Adrien stood up, staring in the direction she had exited. “Well, that was weird,” he announced to the room, looking around for Plagg. He spotted him a few seconds later lounging in a sunny spot on Chloe’s bed. “What do you think that was about? I didn’t know kwamis had gender-related problems. I thought you were just kind of creatures of pure magic.”

“That’s one way to put it,” Plagg said, scratching his ears with one paw.

Adrien frowned. “So Chloe was lying?”

“How would I know?” Plagg said, eyes lolling closed lazily.

“Should I follow her?”

“Depends,” Plagg answered. “On one hand, the fact that Pollen needed her means that it was probably miraculous-related business. On the other hand, this is a really comfortable spot and I don’t really want to move.”

Adrien rolled his eyes. “Plagg, claws out!”

Curiously, he couldn’t track her location with his baton, so he left out the window and spotted her flying away in time to follow. She flew directly east, towards the business district-

-directly into an akuma attack.

Adrien gaped in shock as Chloe immediately started taking direction from Ladybug, herding the akuma into a corner. “What the…” he muttered, jumping down from the rooftops. “What the...LADYBUG!”

Ladybug startled so badly she completely missed her yo-yo swing, falling from mid-air to a somersault onto the ground. Adrien dove forward to push her out of the way of the akuma’s fire (literal fire, in this case), rolling behind a newspaper stand as a temporary shield. “There’s an akuma!” he hissed, rather obviously, as he pressed Ladybug into the stand.

She slapped his arms away from her shoulders. “I noticed,” she said coldly, glaring at him.

“You didn’t _call me!”_ he continued, gaping at her. “Ladybug, come on. We’re still on the same team! Why didn’t you call for help?!”

“I did call for help,” Ladybug said. “And Queen Bee is here. Now, unless you’re going to fight me here too, I need to go back her up!”

Adrien let her round the corner again, watching as she spun her yo-yo as a shield. Shaking himself, he pounced behind her and entered the battle, using his staff to vault over some flames and attack the akuma head on.

One lucky-charm later, the butterfly was captured and released. Ladybug hesitated a moment before throwing her charm back into the air, looking over her shoulder back at him.

“No fight from you today, Chat Noir?” she asked.

Adrien narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. “There are fires everywhere,” he said tersely. “We need the miraculous cure.”

“So now we need it,” she said.

“I’m not heartless!” he exploded. “I’m not trying to leave Paris up in flames-”

“Well, since you’ve seen the error of your ways-”

“Error of _my_ ways?” Adrien responded incredulously. “Ladybug, there are times where Paris would be fine without the cure, and in case you’ve forgotten, we’re here to fight Hawkmoth-”

“We’re here to keep Paris safe,” Ladybug spat, marching forward to go nose-to-nose.

“Your willful ignorance of the problem-” he started, picking up steam.

“What don’t you understand about saving the city?!”

“-is more of a danger than anything! And now you’re trying to leave me out of things?”

“We don’t need you anymore!” Ladybug shouted.

Adrien reared back as though he’d been slapped.

“Um,” Chloe said to the side. “Ladybug, are you gonna…?”

Ladybug turned away. “Miraculous Ladybug!” she shouted, throwing her charm in the air.

Adrien turned to Chloe. “Is that how you feel too?” he whispered. “You don’t need me?”

“Chat, no,” Chloe said, touching down in front of him. “I just...It’s her power, her choice, alright? You don’t have a miraculous power, so you don’t know.”

Adrien felt his ears flatten against his head. “Well, you don’t have _any_ spell powers, because you’re afraid to use them,” he hissed. “See you at school.”

“Chat!”

He looked around, but Ladybug had already taken off. Shrugging, he vaulted away too, resolving not to speak to Chloe until he could settle things with Ladybug.

   

* * *

 

Marinette arrived a half hour early to the Hotel with the cake in her hands and a few extra decorations stuffed into her backpack just to make sure everything was going smoothly. Not that she didn’t trust Chloe -

-well, actually, she didn’t trust Chloe. But the hotel staff seemed to have done their job as magnificently as ever; the entire foyer was covered in balloons and streamers, there was a snack bar with all kinds of treats, and a music station up front with plenty of room for dancing.

Marinette slid her cake onto one end of the food table with a smile from the catering team, and then set off to find Chloe, who was supposedly in charge. She found her eventually up in her suite, not helping with the party at all.

“Come in,” Chloe said in response to her knock, pushing aside some magazines on the bed and sitting up as Marinette came in. “Oh,” she said bluntly, wrinkling her nose. “It’s you. I thought you were Sabrina.”

“Nope, sorry,” Marinette said, trying to put on a pleasant facade. “Is Sabrina supposed to be here early?”

“She’s at some science fair,” Chloe dismissed. “How the hell am I supposed to know when she’ll be back?”

“I was just wondering,” she replied. “But, actually, the school’s not having a science fair today.”

Chloe narrowed her eyes. “It’s not a science fair at our school, idiot, it’s at her - nevermind.”  

“Whatever,” Marinette said flatly. “So you aren’t helping set up with the party?”

Chloe flopped back down on her bed and pulled a magazine up. “We have staff for that,” she said. “Don’t worry, I’ll be down for the actual event.”

“Fine by me,” Marinette muttered, adjusting her backpack. “Look, can you just point out the head decorator or the handyman or something?”

Chloe whipped her magazine back down and glared at Marinette. “No. Why?”  

Marinette glared back and gestured to her bag. “I just have some extra decorations, that’s all.”

“No,” Chloe declared instantly. “The decorations are fine as they are.”

“How would you know?” she asked. “Have you seen them?”

Chloe jumped up off the bed. “Fine. I’ll be fair. Show me these extra decorations the party absolutely _needs_ to have.”

“Fine, because they’re awesome,” Marinette snapped, swinging her backpack down and unzipping it. “Okay, first of all, there’s some extra balloons-”

“We have balloons,” Chloe sneered. “Helium balloons are better. Is that all?”

She scowled into her bag, figuring the extra confetti she’d brought wouldn’t be appreciated, either. That’s fine, there was really only one thing she’d put real effort into. “Look, I made a special banner, alright?” she said, pulling out her cloth project and unfurling it. “Nino’s always really liked them, and-”

Chloe snatched at it. “These stupid banners you make are only for sports things.”

“It’s a present!” Marinette hissed, flushing.

“No,” Chloe said again, looking it over. “You can’t hang this up. It doesn’t match.”

“It’s just a birthday-”

“And there’s no room for it.”

“There’s plenty of-”

“It’s poorly made and I’m not displaying it in my family’s hotel!” Chloe yelled. “Just look at it! Blue, red, and orange? It looks like Frosted Flakes threw up on the French flag. The letters are all different sizes, you can see dried glue lumps everywhere-”

“That’s not true!” Marinette said, trying to snatch her banner back. “And even if it was, Nino would still like it-”

“Ha!” Chloe laughed. “Being pitied isn’t the same as being liked. You of all people should understand that.” She ripped the banner in half.

Marinette gasped and caught the two pieces as they fluttered to the floor. Speechless, she glared up at Chloe through watery eyes.

There was a knock on the door. “Miss Bourgeois,” a male voice said outside. “The party will be starting shortly.”

Marinette shoved the ripped banner into her backpack and ran outside, almost trampling the butler in her progress.

She forwent the elevator and ran down the stairs instead, hugging her backpack so tightly the straps bit into her palms. God, what gave Chloe the right? She was the meanest, most arrogant, most terrible-

“Ah!” Marinette screamed, tripping over something at the bottom of the stairs and falling to her knees on the landing.

“Oh my god,” a voice said. “Marinette, I’m so sorry.”

Marinette rolled over into a sitting position to find Adrien seated at the bottom of the stairs.

 

* * *

 

“I am so, so sorry,” Adrien continued, wincing at Marinette continued to stare at him in disdain. “I should have heard you coming, I’m sorry, I just wasn’t paying attention at all.”

“Adrien,” she said softly, almost to herself. “What are you doing at the bottom of the stairs?”

He stared down at his lap. “Avoiding Chloe.”

Marinette’s jaw drapped a little, and then inexplicably, she started to laugh. “You? Avoiding Chloe? I thought you were best friends! What happened to your whole ‘Chloe’s trying to make up with everyone in the class’ thing?”

Adrien flushed. “Well, first she has to make up with me,” he mumbled, looking back up at Marinette. Her eyes were shiny and her cheeks were flushed. “And you, I’m guessing.”

“You guessed right,” she huffed, reaching over to grab her backpack and pull it closer.

“What’d she do to you?” Adrien asked.

Marinette blushed and looked down at her hands. “She ripped up my birthday present for Nino.”

“That sucks,” Adrien said. “I’ll pay for it-”

“It was homemade, Adrien!” she snapped. “You can’t just keep offering to pay for things!”

Her words echoed in the emptiness of the staircase. “I’m sorry,” he answered her eventually. “I don’t...sometimes that’s the only thing I know how to do.”

Marinette looked across at him. “We can’t hide in here forever,” she declared flatly. “It’s Nino’s party, and we should be there for him.”

She was right. “You’re right,” Adrien said, pushing himself to his feet. He offered Marinette a hand, and after a moment of evaluation, she took it. “You’re a better friend than I am.”

“That’s not true,” Marinette objected, dropping his hand and leading the way down the rest of the stairs.  

She burst through the doors at the bottom of the stairwell before he could answer, where party downstairs was in full swing. Marinette darted over in the direction of the coat closet, presumably to put her backpack down, and Adrien just stared after her for a few seconds before he was half-tackled. “Wha..?”

“Dude!” Nino shouted in his ear as he squeezed Adrien, slapping him twice on the back before he let go. “This was your idea? You got the entire class to come! You got my entire _family_ to come!”

“Happy birthday, man,” Adrien replied, punching him lightly on the shoulder. “You deserve it.”

“I gotta say, I was super surprised,” Nino said. “I had no idea why Alya was bringing me to Chloe’s.”

“Well, I couldn’t have it at _my_ place,” he answered dryly, grinning. “Did you see the pile of presents?”

Nino rolled his eyes. “Yes. Please tell me you didn’t buy out a whole department store.”

“They’re not all from me,” Adrien said.

“I’ve also seen the giant buffet,” Nino said, narrowing his eyes.

Adrien smiled. “Good. Then you’ve also seen sound system? Music station and all?”

“Hell yeah I have,” he answered. “It’s a pretty sweet setup for an automated system.”

Adrien quirked an eyebrow. “It’s doesn’t have to be automated.”

“Dude,” Nino said. “You don’t mean…?”

“All you, buddy,” he answered.

Nino laughed. “Best birthday ever!”

He bounced away towards the DJ setup, grinning back at Adrien who followed at a more sedate pace.

“Oh, _Adriieen!”_

He whipped his head around to see Chloe making a beeline (beeline, ha) towards him. He backed up as far as he could until he hit the edge of the dance floor, which he did not want to lead Chloe onto. “Adrien,” Chloe said, plastering on her fake, sickly-sweet smile. “Dance with me.”

“No,” Adrien said stubbornly.

“Come on, Adrien,” Chloe whined. “Please? It’s a party, you have no reason not to-”

“I actually do have a reason I can’t dance with you,” he said, eyes darting around frantically. “I have to - I promised I’d dance with Marinette,” he exclaimed, eyes finding Marinette’s though the crowd. “Yes! Marinette!” he waved frantically at her, and she warily walked towards them until she was close enough for Adrien to grab by the arm. “I owe you a dance,” he told her, leading the two of them out onto the dance floor. “Well, it was nice talking to you, Chloe, gotta go, bye!”

Chloe stomped her foot in the background as Adrien continued leading them away. “I’m really sorry,” he mumbled, leaning down to mumble in Marinette’s ear. “I just - I really don’t want to talk to Chloe right now, and...”

“It’s fine, Adrien,” Marinette said, stopping in place and turning around, holding up her hands in dance position. She smiled a little, blushed and said in a trembling voice, “You might owe me two dances for this, though.”

Adrien was struck by the realization that Marinette’s blush was the most adorable thing he’d ever seen. He shook himself lightly and stepped forward into her hold, her one hand resting on his shoulder as his wrapped around her waist, their other hands coming up to meet in the air. “Two dances is fine,” he said, stepping forward to lead them in a slow two-step. “Actually, two dances is a bargain.”

Up close, Marinette had a smattering of teeny tiny freckles on her nose and the tops of her cheeks. “Really?” she breathed, staring up at him.

And her eyes were practically like comets, holy shit. “Yeah,” he replied shakily, suddenly breathless. “You’re...saving me.”

Marinette glanced down. “From Chloe.”

Once her eyes were off of him, he could suddenly think straight again. “Yeah, from Chloe,” he said, and cleared his throat. “I mean, hopefully, we’re saving each other from her.”

Marinette’s hand was so smooth in his. “I didn’t know dancing was such a good defense system.”

“You’d be surprised,” Adrien said, thinking back to all the suspiciously dance-like dodging maneuvers he’s performed as Chat Noir, as well as the straight up showy dancing as a distraction. “Although a strict waltz hold might be not be completely necessary.”

Marinette instantly blushed and tried to pull backwards, but Adrien caught her by his fingertips. “No! Not that it’s a bad thing!”

“I’m sorry,” Marinette mumbled, staring straight down at her shoes.

“No, I’m sorry,” Adrien said. “I was just teasing.”

The tips of Marinette’s ears reddened, and she muttered, “I’ve never really danced with a boy before, so I guess I don’t really know what I’m doing.”

“You’re doing great,” he said instantly. “You’re the best dance partner I’ve ever had.”

She snorted. “You go to fancy parties all the time,” she said, her tone gradually receding to normal. “You must have danced with loads of girls.”

“Some girls,” he dismissed, shrugging under Marinette’s hand. “Nobody that really mattered.”

She looked back up at him. “What, you never asked a girl you liked to dance with you?” she asked.

He couldn’t focus looking into her eyes, so he dropped his gaze to her lips. Her soft, pink lips. _Why was he noticing her lips?_ Right, because she had just asked about girls he liked, and Marinette’s lips looked almost like Ladybug’s. “I’ve only ever liked one girl,” he answered truthfully.

Marinette froze in his hold. “You like someone?”

Adrien paused too, thinking of Ladybug. Beautiful, clever Ladybug. Strong, confident Ladybug who could never be swayed from something once she put her mind to it, and who made Adrien want to rip his hair out. Stubborn, immutable Ladybug, who might be actively putting the city in danger and had never even considered him as more than a friend and was now actively pushing him away-

“I used to,” Adrien said. “But she turned out to be really...short-sighted. And I don’t think she’ll ever feel the same away about me.” 

Marinette’s lips parted and she suddenly ripped her hands out of Adrien’s and put them around his neck, pulling him into a hug. She was so short her head barely reached his shoulder, but it was comforting all the same. His hands settled back on her waist and they started swaying to the music again. “That’s ridiculous,” Marinette said. “You’re the best guy I know. That girl’s an idiot to not like you back. Doesn’t she know who you are?”

A sharp pang twisted Adrien’s heart. “No,” he mumbled into Marinette’s beautiful-smelling hair. “I guess she doesn’t really know, where it counts. She doesn’t need me.”

“Well,” Marinettte said eventually, “If you need advice, I have plenty of experience playing the long game.”

Adrien chuckled, ignoring the small hiss of _who the hell is Marinette playing a long game with_ in the back of his mind.

 

* * *

 

Alya had lost her phone so many times during akuma attacks that she’d given Marinette access to the little phone-tracker app, which Marinette never used except for in emergencies.

Like this one.

“Alya!” Marinette screamed, wrenching open one of the pantry doors. “Code Red, Code - _oh mon dieu!”_

Alya and Nino sprung away from each other, hastily wiping their mouths and straightening clothes. “MAinette!” Nino squeaked, voice cracking halfway through the name. “Um. Fancy seeing you here-”

She ogled at them. “I am so sorry,” she said hoarsely. “Clearly, you guys are having your own code red - happy birthday _to you,_ Nino-”

“Can’t either of you be cool?” Alya asked, fixing her hair and glaring at both of them. “Seriously. Can either of my two best friends just once be cool for like, five minutes?"

“I’ll go,” Marinette said. “I’ll text you later. Um, have fun, you two!”

She heard Alya’s loud sigh of exasperation before she slammed the closet door shut.

 

* * *

 

Adrien didn’t leave Nino’s party until late that night, and then elected to help Nino’s family carry the large (okay, so he’d bought a lot of the presents, but not all of them, he swore) pile of gifts home, collapsing into sleep almost immediately when he got home, so he managed to escape Plagg’s commentary until the next day.

“Kid, geez, come on,” Plagg huffed, watching as Adrien restyled his hair again and again in front of the mirror. “If I knew you were going to preen so much I would have made sure you were given a bird miraculous. What gives?”

“I just want to look nice,” Adrien said, smoothing his hair down. He needed a haircut, probably. But not a really haircut, maybe just a nice blow-out. "And smell nice. I've been getting that dog smell everywhere lately, so I need to make it doesn't pass on to-" 

“To who?” Plagg questioned, narrowing his tiny eyes as he swooped around Adrien’s head. “What, are you planning on seeing Ladybug today?”

“No,” Adrien defended.

“Well, that’s the only other time I’ve seen you - wait,” Plagg said, stopping in front of Adrien to glare at him. “Don’t tell me you have another crush!”

Adrien steadfastly ignored the kwami.

“Holy cheese wheels, you do!” Plagg exclaimed. “Who is it? It’s the little pigtailed one that sits behind you, right?”

Adrien scowled. “Drop it, Plagg.”

“It is!” the kwami declared. “I should have seen this coming, you spent practically the entire evening mooning over her yesterday-”

“I did _not!”_

“You have a type,” Plagg continued.

Adrien snatched Plagg out of the air. “So what if I have a crush on Marinette?” he asked, hurrying out of the bathroom. “Maybe I don’t! Maybe I’m just really lonely for human contact, and that was the most I’ve touched anyone in a long time so I’m getting it _confused_ with a crush. There’s no way to know.”

“What am I, chopped liver?” Plagg said. “We’re touching right now.”

“Not the same,” Adrien hissed, releasing Plagg to hastily shove his books into his schoolbag. “Also, it doesn’t help that she’s pretty. Like, objectively pretty. Loads of boys have had crushes on her, so. Her eyes and her nose and her mouth are good, but they don’t help. You know?”

“No,” Plagg said.

“Even if I did have a crush,” Adrien said. “I’m way too busy for a girlfriend. And I’m Chat Noir, for goodness sake. So it’s not like anything could ever happen.”

“Sure,” Plagg said.

Adrien rounded on him. “You better not tell anyone,” he hissed.

“Who am I going to tell?” his kwami asked. “Hey Plagg, guess what Adrien did today? What, Plagg, did he get flustered over some human thing again? Right on the nose! Correct again, Plagg!”

Adrien flushed and pulled on his coat. “I’m leaving,” he warned.

The rest of the morning was pretty quiet, until Chloe suddenly excused herself from chemistry class right before lunch. Adrien quietly followed her outside, where she did transform and fly off towards city hall.

Where an akuma was waiting.

 

* * *

 

Adrien liked her. _Adrien liked her._ Adrien sought her out in school and whispered things behind his hand at her and traded theories about who finally made the first move, Nino or Alya, and defended her when Nino and Alya noticed them laughing at each other. Adrien was her _friend._ Adrien smiled at her and, unless she was imagining it, spent a little too long staring at her across the room sometimes -

So why _the hell_ did she keep seeing Chat Noir everywhere?

A blond boy would skateboard down the sidewalk, or rush down the stairs of the metro as she was coming up, and her heart would leap into her throat. She blamed Chat Noir for the sudden trend of lack of haircuts; everywhere she looked, shaggy-haired blond boys jumped out in her vision, like components of a lucky charm. And her heart, up in her throat, would beat _is it him, it is him, is it him?_

Which was stupid. Whenever Chat Noir actually showed up to a battle, she could feel him. She could feel him like a fire under her feet.

Like today.

“Ladybug, over here! _”_ Queenie called. Marinette tossed the akuma victim’s pencil case her way, and Queen Bee started breaking pencils at random.

“Noooo!” The akuma victim wailed. It was a little girl around Manon’s age, and Marinette felt a little bad about swooping in to steal all of her things, but not that bad. “ _I’m_ the teacher! That means you have to listen to _me!”_

“School ended forever ago,” Marinette replied, dodging to the left to avoid the little girl’s hand-flung curse before straightening up again. “I don’t need a teacher anymore.”

Queen Bee ripped the last eraser in half, and then the entire pencil case for good measure. “This isn’t it, Ladybug!”

“Darn it!” Marinette called, throwing her yo-yo at Queen Bee and jumping up in the air to join the other girl as she caught it. “Not her papers, not her folders, not her backpack, not her lunchbox, not her pencil case-”

“Hey!” the little girl screamed. “You’re leaving me out! No _leaving people-”_

“Look out!” Marinette screamed, jumping off her yo-yo.

“- _out!”_

Queenie screamed and dropped the other end to let Marinette fall, but wasn’t fast enough to avoid the blast of neon energy straight to her chest. Marinette watched in horror as she was blasted back into the building behind her.

“Queenie!” Chat Noir screamed behind her. Marinette’s body erupted in goosebumps as he leapt over her, landing in a crouch between Queen Bee and the akuma, staff raised and hackles up. “Leave her alone!”

“Learn to _share!”_ the akuma screamed back, firing another bolt of energy from her palms.

Chat dove sideways to dodge as Marinette shouted _“Lucky Charm!”_

A flashlight fell into her hands. Marinette clicked it on hurriedly, and the street glowed purple under her feet. “A blacklight? What am I supposed to do with this?” Things glowed in the dark under a blacklight, right? Maybe she was supposed to light up the akuma...or maybe something else dark - like Chat?

“Queen Bee!” the akuma shrieked. “You’re leaving Chat Noir out of your attacks!”

Queenie froze in midair and grimaced, muttered something under her breath, and then swiveled towards Chat Noir. “Chat, I’m sorry, but-”

“What?” Chat squeaked. “No, no, you’re not leaving me out! You’re leaving _the akuma..._ I’m sorry, what was your name?”

“Attack Chat Noir!” the akuma screamed.

“Geez, that’s a sucky name,” Chat Noir muttered. “Queenie, attack her.”

Queen Bee turned again. “Attack Chat Noir!” the akuma ordered.

“Attack _what’s her name!”_

“Guys!” Marinette said, looping her yoyo around the blacklight and jumping in the middle of the three of them. “Stop it, you’re killing her!”

“Are not!” the akuma argued.

Marinette smirked, clicked the black light on, and started spinning it around her head on her yoyo, illuminating everything she could.

“Well, it’s not pleasant,” Queen Bee muttered.

“You’re leaving Ladybug out,” the akuma said. “Queen Bee, attack _Ladybug.”_

Marinette glanced over at Chat Noir - he wasn’t glowing at all under her light, and moreover, he was just staring back at her without lifting a finger to help. She knew he was probably still upset by what she’d said earlier this week…

Marinette wasn’t in the business of lying, so what she’d said must have been _true._ She didn’t need him. “That’s fine,” she said loudly. “Don’t worry about it, Queenie. I can take you and this brat with one hand tied behind my back.”

Chat Noir frowned, and the akuma screamed. _“Liar!_ Tell the _truth!”_

Marinette glanced over at the akuma - was the little girl’s hair glowing?

“Ladybu-”

Marinette got bowled over by the akuma’s blast that she had been too distracted to notice; the blacklight went flying out of her yoyo’s hold on it as she tumbled down the street. Her earrings beeped three times.  

She blinked her eyes to clear her vision, but her view was suddenly obstructed by the back of Chat Noir’s ankles. “Hawkmoth, would it kill you to give us just one week off?” he was shouting in front of her. “It’s been attacks almost every day for weeks now. Look at what you did to me, I’m out of puns!”

“Priorities,” Ladybug whispered behind him.

Chat glanced back at her and lifted her to her feet with one hand. Her earrings beeped four times and she lifted a hand to her ear, meeting Chat’s eyes and swinging them both up to the roof of the nearest building.

“You’re really low,” he said. “Do you have a plan for this one? What’s the akuma hiding in, I can still grab it-”

“No,” Marinette’s mouth answered automatically. She was so surprised she startled back.

Chat let go of her, looking offended. “Look, I won’t fight you on the stupid cleansing thing today, alright? You can still tell me-”

“I don’t know,” burst out of her mouth. Marinette clapped her hands to her lips, staring at Chat with wide eyes.

“What?” he asked.

“Chat,” she breathed. “No, I don’t have a plan, I don’t know what the akuma’s hiding in, and no, I’m not alright, I have a freaking truth compulsion right now!”

His eyes widened. “Oh, shit,” he said. “Ladybug, you better go right now, and don’t talk to anyone. This is bad. This is terrible.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Marinette hissed. “I’m really out of time - guard my lucky charm for me, ok?”

“Ok,” Chat said. “Call me when-”

“I will, I will,” Marinette said. “Although, Queenie-”

“ _Queenie,”_ Chat groaned. “Okay, I’ll bring her home, too, and _then_ I’ll be back. I’ll be an hour, tops.”

Marinette nodded and swung back to school.

 

* * *

 

If she went home, her parents would immediately ask _oh, Marinette, are you sick? What happened, why aren’t you at school?_ And she would immediately have to tell them that she wasn’t sick and that she was actually Ladybug, so back to the classroom she went, scarfing down a sandwich she bought from a cafe. She didn’t need to, actually - there were still 10 minutes left in the lunch period, and many students were trickling back to school.

Marinette headed straight to her desk, pulling out her phone to play on and keeping her head down. Alya and Nino were both absent, probably still on their lunch date, so if she was lucky (and, not to brag, she usually was) she could keep her head down and not talk to anyone long enough for Chat to finish up - he might have to recharge his kwami, as well….

The second people back in the classroom (besides Nathaniel, who was drawing quietly at his desk) were Adrien and Chloe, who seemed to be in the middle of a hushed argument.

“I’m not trying to leave you out!” Adrien whisper-hissed. It was not effective, Marinette could hear every word. “Maybe you’re being left out of staying at home, huh?”

Chloe tilted her head. “No, that didn’t work,” she said. “There’s more people here, and this is where I’m supposed to be. If I went home I would be leaving people out of my presence.”

Adrien rolled his eyes. “You’re leaving me out of the experience of taking you home and avoiding what is sure to be a huge, colossal mistake-”

That was when Sabrina walked in. “Oh, there you are, Chloe!” she chirped. “I was looking for you!”

Chloe threw a smug look in Adrien’s direction and turned to Sabrina. “Bri-bri! How was your lunch?”

“Good!” Sabrina said. “I-”

“Juleka!” Chloe interrupted as the other girl walked into the room. “How was lunch?”

“Oh, god,” Adrien mumbled. “Sabrina, Chloe’s feeling sick. She should go home.” That was just like Adrien, to take care of his friend like that, even when Marinette knew they hadn’t been getting along recently.

“I’m feeling fine, Adrien,” Chloe snapped. “Stop being such an idiot.”

That was about the last straw for Marinette. She put her phone down on the desk and snapped, “Come on, Chloe, he was just trying to help.”

Chloe turned back to her and sneered. “Eugh, you. How was your lunch?”

“There was an akuma attack,” Marinette retorted honestly. “And it’s a bad lunch when anybody in Paris is being attacked. Including you attacking Adrien.”

“I am not attacking Adrien!”

“Yes you are!” Marinette said, looking over to Adrien for support. He was staring at her, and seemed to be blushing slightly. “He’s such a great person and he doesn’t deserve to be called names when he’s just trying to help you.”

“Oh, shut up,” Chloe drawled. “You think he’s amazing just because you have a crush on him.”

“I - I do n-” she spoke to defend herself, but the words got stuck in her throat. _Tell the truth._ “Adrien is objectively amazing,” she said instead.

But Chloe must have smelled blood - she was smirking. “You what?” she asked. “You don’t have a crush on Adrien?”

The words were bubbling up in her throat and Marinette clapped both hands over her mouth to avoid speaking. He was right there, _he was right there,_ she couldn’t admit it now, right in front of him, _she would die_ and _Adrien would know!_

“Come on, just tell us who you’re in love with,” Chloe ordered.

Oh my god, she couldn't tell Adrien she was in love with him, she couldn't she couldn't she couldn't _she couldn't_ \- “I’m in love with Chat Noir!” Marinette burst out, gasping.

And then froze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry it's been so long since I updated, but at least this is the longest chapter so far? Fair warning, my next three weeks are full of finals, so it'll probably be a little bit again. Also, I have not watched season 2 yet, since I'm waiting for the episodes to make it to dumb America, so you'll be reading a generous interpretation of the few things I've seen around. 
> 
> Thank you so much for the reviews and kudos!!!! You are all amazing!!! Please let me know what you thought.


	10. End Act I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Marinette and Adrien might settle their fight, if only they had more time. Unfortunately...

Well, Marinette was skipping class. And possibly all school, for the rest of her life, since she was running away. She ended up sneaking back into her bakery while her parents were making a delivery during the afternoon lull, so she was able to steal lots of cookies for Tikki and hide back up in her room. 

“You ready yet, Tikki?” Marinette asked, leg bouncing up and down rapidly as she watched Tikki inhale treats at her desk. 

“Soon,” Tikki said, infuriatingly calm. “At least Chat Noir is still out there.” 

Marinette flinched. “That’s the  _ problem.”  _

“Why?” Tikki said. “Your fight with Chat Noir? I’m sure he’ll let you do the miraculous cure today, you’ll need it to fix all the people with spell damage.”

“My fight with Chat Noir?” Marinette asked incredulously. “My fight with Chat Noir? Tikki, apparently I’m  _ in love with Chat Noir.”  _

Tikki took a loud bite of a crunchy cookie. 

“Well?” Marinette demanded. “Aren’t you outraged? Indignant? Surprised? I’m supposed be in love with  _ Adrien.”  _

“Hmm,” Tikki said, averting her eyes

Marinette’s jaw dropped. “You  _ knew?”  _ she screeched. “But - you - Adrien - I -”

“Marinette,” Tikki said. “I will always support you, no matter who you chose. But you have to admit, you can barely talk to Adrien. You weren’t really in love with him.”

“Oh my god,” Marinette moaned. “But the party - it was just a few days ago. I danced with Adrien, no problem.” 

“Yes,” Tikki said patiently. “But who were you thinking about?”  

Marinette opened her mouth. She’d been thinking about Adrien, of course she’d been thinking about Adrien - “Adrien said something about saving each other saving each other, and it reminded me of Chat Noir.”  _ Damn it, truth spell.  _

Tikki smiled at her. 

“Tikki,” Marinette said seriously. “Chat Noir and I can barely fight akumas together right now, let alone...I can’t even trust him not to pounce on me the minute I try to cleanse, so how can we - how can I - how long have I been in love with him?”  

“You don’t want to know,” Tikki said. “Come on, Marinette, let’s go get that akuma. I’m ready now.” 

“Fine,” Marinette retorted, wondering  _ when she could have possibly fallen in love with Chat Noir without noticing.  _ Was it when she had gotten jealous of Queen Bee? The kiss while fighting Dark Cupid? Had she been doomed since the moment she saw him? “Spots on.” 

 

* * *

 

“I’m in love with Chat Noir!” Marinette blurted out. She blanched immediately, mumbled, “I have to go to the bathroom,” and ran out of the classroom. 

Adrien felt his cheeks warm a little. He probably should have stopped Chloe’s line of questioning, but she had called him ‘objectively amazing’ and he  _ did  _ want to know who Marinette had a crush on. Was Marinette probably saying any old name in a response to an embarrassing question? Yes. 

Was he still thrilled that Marinette said (even though she didn’t know it)  _ his  _ name? Absolutely. 

Chloe threw him a disgusted look. “Why do you look so happy?” she asked, apparently forced by the spell she was under to not leave anyone out of her interrogations. 

“Nothing,” Adrien said smoothly. “Well, if you’re going to be that way, I have an ak- I mean, I’m going to go to the bathroom too. See you!”  

He practically skipped his way back into the center of Paris, staff in one hand and Ladybug’s flashlight in the other. “Hey!” he said, finding the little akumatized kid bossing moms and babies around in a mostly empty playground. “Preschool girl!” 

The little girl whipped around. “I’m the  _ Kindergarten Teacher!”  _

“Oh,” Adrien said, balancing on top of some monkey bars. “That’s your thing. Got it. Now, usually I’d say that kindergarten rules are good to live by, but in your case I think you still have some more learning to do.”

A purple butterfly mask appeared over her face briefly - Adrien took the chance to look around, scanning the playground for something he could destroy, a distraction…

His gaze fell on a four-year-old boy clinging to a swing for dear life while his mother, crying silent tears, was forced to push him. He leapt over and snatched up the kid-

“Hey!” Kindergarten Teacher snapped at him, apparently done with Hawkmoth. “He was having fun!” 

The boy in his arms clung to Adrien tighter, one hand digging into his collar and one squeezing his bell. “Sure,” Adrien said dryly. “Fun, Plankton style. F is for fire that burns down the-”

“Play with him!” she screeched, shooting a beam out of her hands. 

Adrien dodged, very cognizant of the fragile mini-human in his arms as he leapt up the street, destruction at his tail. “Sorry, buddy,” he gasped out in between breaths. “Tell me if I’m squeezing too hard.” 

“Chat Noir,” the kid said in wonder. 

_ “Stop running!”  _ Teacher shouted. Behind him, a car exploded. 

“Chat Noir,” the boy said in his arms, “Will my mom be okay?” 

“Of course,” Adrien said, leaping over a bus in one bound and taking a sharp corner. They were nearing the hilly North Paris, which was good, because he could shake her much easier in the narrow streets around the Sacre-Coeur. “Ladybug and I will fix her. What’s she supposed to do, anyway?”

“She has to push me higher on the swing,” the boy said, sounding ashamed. 

“It’s not your fault,” Adrien said. 

“I’m the one who told to crazy lady I liked her glow tattoos,” the boy said. 

“Glow tattoos?” Adrien echoed. 

“They’re like glow-in-the-dark stickers for your skin,” he explained. “The school gave them out. Crazy Lady has them on her cheeks.” 

Adrien dared to glanced back at the akuma victim; sure enough, she had large grey splotches on her cheeks that he’d mistaken for just part of the akumatization ensemble. “That must be where the akuma is,” he thought out loud. “How the hell am I supposed to destroy that?” 

“Chat Noir!” the boy said. “You said a bad word!” 

Adrien took a corner sharply and dumped the kid off at the edge of a souvenir store, continuing to lead the Kindergartener on a wild goose chase. He didn’t live in this part of town, they were nowhere near the river - what could he possibly do to wash some temporary tattoos off a five-year-old? 

“Chat Noir!” 

His head snapped up the rooftop on one side of the street. “Ladybug!” he called out, instinctively relieved. “You made it!” He leapt up to meet her on the roof. 

_ “No double teaming!”  _ the akuma ordered, but missed. 

“Get her wet,” Adrien told Ladybug, landing lightly next to her. 

“What?” Ladybug asked. 

“Just trust me,” Adrien said, and then with a sharp pang remembered that Ladybug  _ didn’t.  _ “The akuma is in her-”

They were forced to scatter as Kindergarten Teacher shot another beam directly at them. Adrien landed on the street below once more as Ladybug swung to the other side. “What are you guys talking about?” the akuma demanded. “Me?” 

“As a matter of fact, you,” Ladybug responded, and that’s when Adrien remembered  _ that Ladybug was under an order to tell the truth.  _ “How to stop you!” 

“You can’t stop me!” 

“We always have,” Ladybug said confidently. “And we always will.” 

A fountain! It wasn’t that big and it didn’t quite have a fast enough water current, but maybe he could cataclysm the controls somehow - 

_ “No you won’t!”  _ the Kindergarten Teacher shouted behind him. Adrien glanced backwards to see her gathering a beam in her arms to shoot - 

_ “Chat!”  _ Ladybug screamed. 

 

* * *

 

The akuma tripped, her shot missing wildly. 

“Lucky Charm!” Marinette ordered, heart pounding in her chest as she watched Chat bound forward on all fours and  _ cataclysm  _ a fountain in front of him. The structure disintegrated in front of him, leaving just a torrent of water leaping straight out of the ground. 

A surfboard appeared in Marinette’s hands. What the _ \-  _ was she supposed to ride somewhere? 

_ Get her wet,  _ Chat had said.  _ Trust me.  _

Despite everything, she trusted him. 

Marinette dove off the rooftop, swinging with her yo-yo in one hand and the surfboard tilted at a 45-degree angle in the other. As she soared over the fountain, the water hit the surfboard and reflected back down onto the akuma, which was immediately drenched - a butterfly appeared out of her cheek. 

Marinette dropped back down to the ground and snagged the butterfly in the same motion. “Bye-bye, little butterfly,” she mumbled, completely the cleansing and throwing the board in the air after it.  _ “Miraculous Ladybug!”  _

The fountain reappeared. The constricting vice of the truth spell lifted from her throat. She help up her fist instinctively. A little purple dot peeled off of her yo-yo and floated away into the sky. “Pound…”

Chat was staring at her, eyes blown wide. “...it,” he finished quietly, reaching to tap her knuckles with his own. His hair was no longer specced with rubble but still windblown, and his mouth was set in a straight, determined line, and  _ she was still in love with him.  _ Probably. “Ladybug, listen-”

“I’m sorry,” Marinette interrupted, dropping her hands and clenching her fists at her sides. “Chat, I’m so, so sorry. I shouldn’t have said that I didn’t need you. Of course I need you, I couldn’t possibly do this all by myself.” 

He blinked in surprise, one corner of his mouth turning down. “I thought you had Queenie now.” 

And Marinette hadn’t even  _ thought  _ about how Chat and his sister arguing must have affected him at home. He didn’t have Ladybug in the mask, he didn’t have Queen Bee outside- “I am so, so sorry,” Marinette repeated. “Queenie is good, but - I miss you.” 

Chat tilted his head, but then his ring beeped loudly. “Crap,” he said, looking down at his four paw-prints and pulling out his baton. “I’m so far from school right now.” 

“Chat,” Marinette pleaded. 

“I gotta go,” he said. “Take care of the girl for us?” 

Marinette had all but forgotten about the five year old girl, who was staring at them in rapture. “Ladybug,” she said, brow furrowing. “Chat Noir. Are you two fighting?” 

“No,” Marinette denied, looking at Chat for support. “Of course not. We’re Ladybug and Chat Noir, we’re a team.” Her earrings beeped once. 

“The police should be here soon,” Chat said. “See you around, Ladybug.” 

Why wasn’t he using any of his stupid nicknames for her? “Kitty,” Marinette snapped, “Come on. How about patrol tomorrow tonight, just me and you?” 

He looked over his shoulder at her. “I’ll see if I’m free,” he said, and vaulted away, which was probably a good thing, because she was about one more dismissal away from punching him.

 

* * *

 

He’d missed all of chemistry, but luckily chemistry was his best subject, so he was able to charm the teacher into not giving him a detention for skipping and went about the rest of his day normally. With the one exception of Marinette, who was absent the entire afternoon.

“Have you heard from her?” Adrien asked Alya during their last-period literature class. They were supposed to be discussing a book with their partner, but Alya didn’t seem to mind. 

“No,” Alya answered, frowning. “Not that it’s that unusual. You know how she is.” 

Adrien shrugged. “I don’t know. Marinette always seemed pretty reliable to me?” 

Alya smirked at this, eyes twinkling, but she changed the subject before Adrien could ask about it. “Speaking of people, where’s Chloe? She ditched just before you came back.” 

“I had an emergency modeling consultation,” Adrien defended automatically, before the words caught up with his brain. “Chloe?” he looked around, and sure enough, she was missing. Adrien hadn’t even noticed she was gone. 

“Yeah,” Alya said, staring at him intensely. “What’s up with you two lately? Some days I swear you’re attached at the hip, and others you’re barely on speaking terms.” 

“It’s complicated,” Adrien said. Alya narrowed her eyes, so Adrien continued hastily, “So, about the book.” 

 

* * *

 

Marinette had to stop somewhere in Montmartre to pick up cookies for Tikki. They were pretty far from school, but lucky that just meant that Marinette could mutter to her bag like a crazy person and not care who saw. “That  _ stupid idiot  _ cat boy! Who does he think he is?”

Tikki opened her mouth, paused, and then ate another cookie. 

“He just blew me off!” Marinette continued. “That settles it, Tikki, if I was ever in love with him, I’m not anymore. What a stubborn, blind, insensitive, ridiculous -” 

“I’m ready to transform again,” Tikki interrupted. 

Marinette blinked. “Again? I was going to go home.” 

“Queen Bee’s trying to get a hold of you,” Tikki said apologetically. 

“Darn, again?” Marinette asked. “Two akumas, I suppose. Let’s go, then.”

She transformed and followed her yoyo’s tracker on Queen Bee back south again. Not surprisingly, Chat seemed to beat her there, and he seemed to be running with his own plan again. 

Scratch that. Chat’s plan seemed to be straight-up launching himself at the akuma. 

Queenie swooped down and landed next to her, the antenna-ribbons sticking out of her ponytail waving back and forth. “Ladybug,” she hissed, grabbing Marinette’s arm. “What’s wrong with Chat?” 

Marinette blinked. “What do you mean?” 

“What happened?” Queenie hissed. “He’s different. I think there’s blood on his face.” 

Marinette watched as Chat threw the akuma - she wasn’t even sure what the akuma was, he didn’t seem to have a chance to do anything because of the pummeling - bodily into the wall. “Oh my  _ god,”  _ she said, hopping down off the roof and lassoing Chat around the chest. Chat wasn’t bleeding when he’d left the first akuma, so it must have been the victim’s.  _ “Chat Noir!”  _ she yelled, hauling him back towards her. “What’s wrong with you?” 

Up close, Chat did look different - he had a split lip, and  _ was there a chunk missing from his ear?  _ She thought their suits were impenetrable. “Well?” she demanded. 

Chat’s arms were pinned to his sides. He stared at her hungrily for a moment, eyes huge, and then instead of answering, opened a first at his side. A purple butterfly jumped out. 

Cursing under her breath, Marinette let go of Chat in order to cleanse the akuma. “Bye-bye, little butterfly,” she chanted, making sure to watch for the darkness as it left. “Miraculous Ladybug!” 

When she looked up, Chat was gone. Marinette opened her yo-yo quickly to try to track Chat, but his signal had vanished too. “Goddamnit,” she swore, looking back around for Queenie. “You were right!” she called out. “He was different! I’ve never seen him just lose it like that.”

Queen Bee was glancing around the rooftops, confused. “Ladybug, is there another miraculous?” 

“What?” Marinette asked. 

“Chat Noir just left with some orange person,” Queen Bee said. “I mean, I think. They just vanished.” 

_ Orange person?  _ It brought back weird memories of Volpina. “Vanished?” Marinette asked, readying her yoyo. “Which way did they go?” 

“Not like that,” Queenie said. “They literally faded into thin air. Like - they weren’t real.” 

“I’m going to go look for them,” Marinette declared. “Can you - look for him at home?” 

Queen Bee looked startled. “What?” 

Marinette shuffled her feet. “Look, I figured out he’s your brother a while ago.” 

Queenie opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again, eyes wide. “My...” she repeated. “You figured out?”

Marinette watched to reach up and tug on her pigtails, but Ladybug didn’t have nervous quirks like that.  “It was sort of obvious,” she said. “From my point of view, at least. And look, I know - erm, your home life isn’t perfect, and the miraculous drama can’t be helping - stop me if I’m overstepping here, I’m sorry.” 

Queenie blinked. “I’m not...confirming or denying anything,” she said. “But you’re right. I can catch Chat at home.” 

“Call me if anything happens,” Marinette said. 

“Same,” Queen Bee said.

 

* * *

 

Adrien finished his after-school photoshoot to three texts on his phone from Chloe’s butler.  _ Master Adrien, please let me know if you’ve seen Miss Chloe. She hasn’t been home all afternoon, is she with you?  _

Adrien sighed, slipping into his limo for the short ride home. He should have known Chloe would be mad that he’d tried to bench her that afternoon, but skipping all of school plus another two hours seemed like a bit of an overreaction. On the other hand, maybe something had happened. She didn’t reply to his texts, so maybe- 

Queen Bee was waiting in his room when he went in. 

“Queenie,” Adrien breathed, dropping his bag and crossing over to her. “Take the mask off, would you?” 

She glared at him. “I’m here on official business.” 

“Come on,” he said. “Someone could walk in and see.” 

She narrowed her eyes for a second before acquiescing, the suit peeling off in a flash. “Who was that other girl?” 

“What other girl?” Adrien asked. 

“The orange one.” 

“What orange one?” 

Chloe clenched her fists. “The orange girl you were with this afternoon after the second akuma!” 

“What second akuma?!” 

“The second akuma!” Chloe shouted. “You were there!” 

“I was in school all afternoon!” he yelled. “Ask anyone!” 

She frowned, but didn’t have the chance to say anything before her phone went off loudly. She pulled it out of her bag and startled back at the name on the screen. “It’s my father.” 

“They’ve been looking for you,” Adrien said. “You’ve been missing all afternoon. They’re probably about to send a search party by now.” 

“Crap,” Chloe said. “I gotta go home. We are not done talking about this.” She pointed at Adrien. 

“Talking about what?” he asked. “You didn’t say a single thing that makes sense!” 

Chloe snorted and transformed again, hopping up on the window ledge. “By the way,” she called over her shoulder. “Did you know Ladybug thinks we’re siblings?” 

“She what?” Adrien questioned, but Chloe had already jumped and was flying away.

He turned around back to where Plagg was lounging on the couch, slowly gorging on a piece of camembert bigger than he was. “Did you get any of that?” 

“Humans,” Plagg drawled. Surprisingly, he got up and floated over to Adrien’s face. “Do you think she really saw you at a second akuma attack today?” 

Adrien blinked, unaccustomed to his kwami staring him directly in the eyes. “Of course not,” he answered honestly. “I didn’t even know there was a second akuma today. What, are you saying she lied? Chloe’s not a liar.” He scowled at Plagg, suddenly protective. “And she’s not crazy. It must have been an illusion akuma, or something.” 

Plagg blinked slowly back at him. “Kid, I have the feeling you’re in for a rough couple of days. On the bright side, it looks like you won’t be alone.” 

Adrien frowned. “Um...thank you? It’s nice to have you with me, Plagg, but, you’re kind of making me nervous.” 

“That makes two of us,” Plagg said, coming forward and tapping Adrien’s nose with one paw. “You’re a good Chat Noir, you know. Kind, brave, not too stupid. Independent, but not too much. Not that smart, but you have your looks-”

“Hey,” Adrien interrupted. “Do you have a point? You’re freaking me out here.”

“Can’t a kwami compliment his Chosen every once in a while?” Plagg said. “Sheesh. I’m going to bed.”

“Is something wrong with me?” Adrien asked. “There’s not - I’m not being replaced, am I? There’s not actually another Chat Noir?” He started pacing. “You can’t! I’ll stop being mad at Ladybug, just please don’t take Chat Noir away, Plagg, please-”

“Adrien,” Plagg interrupted. “Calm down. I’m not going anywhere. You’re not getting replaced.” 

He sucked in a huge breath. “Oh. Oh, good.” 

“You should go to bed, too,” Plagg said. 

“It’s only 18:00, Plagg.” 

“Just lay down,” Plagg ordered, headbutting Adrien until he fell into bed and then curled up into a ball on Adrien stomach. “Just promise me you won’t do or think anything else stupid, alright, kid?” 

“I promise,” Adrien said. “As long as you stop being weird.” He reached down and scratched Plagg between the ears with a fingertip. 

Plagg purred, and napped on Adrien’s stomach for the whole hour Adrien was content to lie there on his phone. 

 

* * *

 

Marinette woke up at six the next morning to a very insistent Tikki saying that Chat Noir had been trying to call her and she needed to get up  _ right now.  _

She met up with an anxious and twitching Chat Noir on the first landing of the Eiffel Tower. “Chat, what’s going on?” 

Ears flat against the back of his head, he said, “Queenie never came home last night.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ....I live! Sorry for the delayed update. You guys are the best readers ever. Thank you so much for all the lovely comments last chapter, you all rock. 
> 
> As far as the story goes, it's only going to get crazier from here...


	11. Adrien's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which we earn our rating via violence and Adrien's language

Adrien didn’t know when Natalie slept - he assumed she did sleep, but whenever that was, it wasn’t at 5 in the morning. He woke up to the sharp click of her heels. “Hm?” he said blearily, pushing Plagg off his shoulder to the other side of the pillow. “Natalie?”

“Adrien,” she acknowledged softly. “I’m sorry to wake up you like this.”

“It’s fine,” he answered, peeling his eyes open and stretching. “Did I oversleep?”

“No,” she said. “It’s 5AM, Adrien. There are some police here to see you.”

He bolted upright, instantly wide awake. “Police?!” he echoed. “Why? Did something happen to Father?”

“Your father is fine,” Natalie answered, and Adrien let out a breath of relief. “They want to ask you about Chloe Bourgeois. She hasn’t been seen since school yesterday.”

Adrien’s eyes widened, and he grabbed Plagg out from under his pillow as subtly as possible. “Oh no,” he breathed. “I’m going to go to the bathroom, and then I’ll be right out!”

Natalie nodded, and then he sprinted across the room and slammed the door to the water closest behind him. _“Plagg,”_ he hissed, opening his hand and letting his kwami float out. “Did you hear that?”

“Yes,” Plagg answered curtly. “You haven’t seen her since school, understand?”

Adrien frowned. “But I saw her at dinnertime last night. If she’s missing, something must have happened-”

“You saw _Queen Bee._ If you tell them that she was here, they’re going to find out about her miraculous, and yours,” Plagg spat, eyes narrowed. “Best case scenario, she ran away from home and you can track her down easily enough once you suit up. You’ll be back to normal in a few hours with no repercussions.”

Adrien took a deep breath. “Right, right,” he said, fiddling with the ring on his finger. “But, Plagg...the worst case scenario?”

Plagg’s green eyes flashed up at him. “You know as well as I do, kid,” he answered shortly. “Queen Bee knows who you are. If the worst happened, you better enjoy the last few hours of your secret identity while you still have one.”

Adrien answered the police officers’ questions as simply as he could. His story apparently matched up with their timeline, and the officers didn’t have any reason to mistrust him, so they let him go pretty quickly.

He suited up as soon as he was alone - there were no messages from Queen Bee on his staff, so he called Ladybug incessantly until she met up with him on the Eiffel tower. “Chat, what’s going on?”

“Queen Bee never came home last night,” he answered.

 

* * *

 

Marinette and Chat Noir searched the city for two hours, barely speaking as they raced over blocks. She followed Chat as he led them in a spiral from city hall out to farther reaches of Paris, not quite sure what they were looking for but just as frantic all the same.

It was just before 8AM when she grabbed him by the shoulder and forced him to a stop on a random rooftop. “There’s still no sign of an akuma,” she said. “She’s probably just not transformed, Chat.”

“She’s not answering her mobile phone,” Chat replied shortly.

Marinette bit her bottom lip, trying to think of an explanation. “Maybe she slept over at a friend’s house and forgot-”

“The police were at _my house_ this morning, Ladybug!” he interrupted. “She’s _missing!_ We have to find her, or she might never come back!”

“Chat, calm down,” Marinette said. “Panicking won’t get us anywhere.”

He clenched his fists at his side, glaring at her. “You know what else is missing?” he retorted. “The darkness.”

She frowned. “The sun just rose, if that’s what you’re-”

“Don’t be obtuse, Ladybug. The hole in the sky? The black ball of darkness that’s been haunting our every move?”

Marinette frowned. “Oh.”

“It took Queenie!”

“It’s just a collection of the darkness from Akumas I’ve cleansed,” Marinette said. “It can’t haunt or take anyone.”

“That’s what you think!” he yelled, hands balling into fists at his sides. “But as far as we know, it’s a collection of Hawkmoth’s power to control people, and Chloe’s _gone!”_

“Chat!” she hissed, glancing down at the street below. “People are staring. If you panic, they’re going to panic, and-”

“I’M NOT PANICKING!” Chat shouted, and shoved her, hard.

Marinette stumbled backwards, hands automatically preparing her yo-yo to throw, but Chat seemed almost as taken aback as she did. “Oh my god,” he breathed. “Ladybug, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry-”

Marinette took a deep breath. _He’s just worried about his sister,_ she reminded herself. “Take a break, Chat Noir,” she ordered.

He’d brought his hands to his chest, curling in on himself. “But, Queenie-”

“Yeah,” she interrupted. “Chloe, right?”

His eyes snapped to hers. “What did you-”

“You just said it,” she answered. “Just her first name, but you’re slipping, Chat. Go to school, it must be just about starting time anyways. I’m going to stay out here and look. I’ll call you if I find anything, and if I don’t then you can come back in a few hours. I’ll look for the orb in the meantime, okay?”

He looked down again. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m sorry, Ladybug,” he said. “And you were right yesterday, I’m sorry we were fighting, it was stupid. We’re a team.”

Marinette stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him before she could think about it. “We’re a team,” she repeated into his shoulder, adjusting only enough to let him place his hands on her waist in return. “I should have never said otherwise, I’m so sorry I hurt you-”

“I never want to hurt you again,” Chat mumbled into her hair.

She lingered until she felt a blush coming to her cheeks, and then pushed him away reluctantly. “Right,” she said to the rooftop, trying not to think about how the breadth of his shoulders felt under her hands. _So much for not having a crush on Chat._ “Um, see you in a few hours, then? One of us should make it to school on time.”

He didn’t seem to notice anything. “Right,” he agreed. “A few hours, Ladybug. Thank you, again.”

“She’s going to be fine,” Marinette assured him. Chat gave her a small smile over his shoulder before vaulting away.

 

* * *

 

Adrien slipped into class right as the last bell was ringing. He smiled apologetically at Nino, pulling out his phone to find  - and he winced - 15 new text messages and 10 new voicemails. One text was from the Gorilla, a few were from Natalie, but the majority were (surprisingly enough) from his Father.

He sent his Father and Natalie the same message. _I’m fine, I’m at school._

Father was the only one to text back. _Where were you all morning?_

_Looking for Chloe._

_No one saw you leave._

_I snuck out,_ Adrien messaged back.

_Anything could have happened to you!_

It was the first burst of outright concern his Father had shown in months. Adrien blinked at his phone in surprise. _I’m sorry I worried you,_ he sent, _but I had to look. I’m fine. Anything could have happened to Chloe._

_Let the police do their job._

_Like they did with Mother?_

“Monsieur Agreste,” Madame Bustier reprimanded. “No texting in class.”

“Sorry,” Adrien apologized, putting the phone away before his Father could reply.

He was still in his first class when the akuma attacked.

 

* * *

 

Marinette stayed out all morning, looking high and low all over Paris, but Chat was right: the orb in the sky had vanished. She was starting to get a tight, panicked feeling in her chest herself when she heard a buzzing noise somewhere behind her.

“Queenie!” she gasped, turning around and jumping to the top of the tallest chimney to get the best view. There, a yellow dot in the sky. She cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted, “QUEENIE!” again. Maybe she had just gotten stressed out and ran away. Chat would be so relieved to find-

She frowned up at the sky. Queenie looked...different. The bee was still far away, but she could have sworn the black and yellow stripes were inverted…

Maybe she was imagining things. Ever since Chat had slipped that his sister’s name was Chloe (not an uncommon name), she’d been thinking about Chloe Bourgeois, which inevitably brought up memories of Antibug, but her inverted colors were much more drastic - and honestly, the chances of another girl named Chloe being akumatized into an anti - you couldn’t even akumatize a miraculous holder, anyways, so -

“Queenie?” Marinette repeated softly, reaching to dial Queen Bee on her yoyo.

She didn’t pick up.

Marinette dove off the roof and started sprinting through the streets, repeatedly pressing the dial button stylized as Chat Noir’s signature pawprint. He wasn’t transformed - she knew he wasn’t transformed, but hopefully his kwami could -

Marinette threw herself down a set up metro stairs and stopped dead, ignoring the stares of civilians as a single, ice-cold thought crystalized in her brain: _Queen Bee is Chat Noir’s sister._

If Queen Bee had been akumatized - if Hawkmoth knew who they were -

_Queen Bee never went home last night -_

Oh, god, she had sent Chat Noir _back he was a sitting duck -_

Queenie flew downstairs - the yellow and black of her uniform was indeed inverted, and worse than that, her eyes were segmented, like an insects - and hovered there to block the exit. “Ladybug,” she said, her reedy voice cold and businesslike.

“Queen Bee,” Marinette said, keeping her voice equally cool.

“Queen Wasp,” she corrected. “About the same. More aggressive.”

“Less sweet,” Marinette added, and bluffed, “Chat Noir’s on his way. You can’t take both of us. Give her up, Hawkmoth, and save us all the trouble.”

A purple mask appeared over Queenie’s face, and when she answered it was echoed by a voice that wasn’t her own. “Chat Noir’s already my hostage, Ladybug.”

Marinette shivered despite herself - but more importantly, she could hear a subway train stopping at the station behind her. “Queenie,” she said. “How could you? Your own brother?”

The purple butterfly dropped abruptly, and Queen Wasp snarled, “You idiot, Chat Noir’s not my broth-”

Marinette threw her yoyo around the end of the subway train and leaped, landing on the roof the last car and lying down immediately to not hit her head on the top of the tunnel as they sped off.

 

* * *

 

Adrien remembered being in class and smelling something strange - his next sensation was hip-checking someone significantly taller than him.

“GAH,” the man yelled as Adrien instinctively turned away from him, cradling his right hand for some reason - his ring, he realized, as he glanced back at a purple masked man with a black _something_ sticking out of his leg.

“YES!” Plagg screamed behind him, causing Adrien to jump about a mile in the air. “YES, ADRIEN! THAT’LL SHOW YOU TO TRY TO TAKE _MY CHOSEN’S RING,_ YOU STUPID MOTH!”

Adrien stared at the purple man. “Hawkmoth?!” he questioned in disbelief. “Plagg, what the fuck happened? Where are we?”

“Chloe was akumatized,” Plagg said shortly. “She’s Queen Wasp now, her pheromones can turn anyone in a drone or a worker. She snuck up on us in class.”

Hawkmoth sat down heavily, hands pressing down hard on the blood rushing from his thigh. He opened his mouth, but all that came out was a rattling gasp.

“She ordered you here, and he tried to take the ring,” Plagg said. “You stung him.”

Adrien stared at the stinger sticking out of Hawkmoth’s thigh. “Oh my god,” he said. “That was attached to my ass? Aren’t bees supposed to die when they sting people?”

“The bee did die,” Plagg said. “You’re here, aren’t you?”

Hawkmoth fainted in front of them.

“Holy shit,” Adrien swore, looking down at the mess in front of them. “Well, that sure backfired on him, didn’t it?” Blood was starting to leak out all over the floor now, which was gruesome, but he was sure the Miraculous Cure could fix it - he’s seen it fix worse. “Was it just luck, or…?”

“Instinct,” Plagg said. “I bet he got cocky. An akumatized miraculous is no joke, but she’s probably too far away to keep a good hold on you, especially as you’re a strong miraculous holder yourself - it wasn’t good enough hold to force you to do something you instinctively really didn’t want to do. That's why no other akuma has been able to take it.”

“Where could she...Ladybug,” Adrien finished, stepping towards Hawkmoth. “She’s probably fighting Ladybug. Joke’s on her, I’m about to bring my lady the _ultimate_ akuma.”  

“It’s the butterfly bow tie,” Plagg said helpfully.

Adrien smirked, leaning over the pool of blood. _“Gotcha,”_ he hissed triumphantly, yanking the miraculous off and watching the purple suit flicker. “Bye-bye, little…”

  
  
  


…

  
  


Beneath him, impossibly, lied his father. He was pale from blood loss, and his already stark hair seemed absolutely colorless, and there were bags under his eyes like he hadn’t slept in _years-_

“Plagg,” Adrien whispered, feeling his voice tremble. “Where _the fuck_ are we?”

Plagg hovered beside Adrien, wearing an unreadable expression as he stared down at Gabriel Agreste. “We’re in your attic, kid.”

 

* * *

 

The streets were a bloodbath.

Queen Wasp could turn people into her wasp-minions as she passed. The transformations were like something out of a horror movie; people’s skin would jaundice as she passed, their eyes would segment into insectoid bulbs, and a large black stinger would erupt from the base of their spine.

They stung anyone in their way.

Marinette had already called the police to call for a lockdown, but the city of Paris had been in that full swing that spring morning, and it was easier said than done. If she stopped too close to street level, she would get swarmed by drones - she’d been running from Queen Bee for half an hour at this point.

Still no sign of Chat.

Hopefully he was still alive.

Marinette was closing in on the eastern edge of the city - towards the Arc de Triomphe, when she was cut off by a dark purple swarm ahead of her. For a moment her heart leapt into her throat and she thought it was the black darkness orb after all - maybe it hadn’t been the thing that akumatized Queenie, maybe - but then the swarm dissipated into individual butterflies and a man in a purple suit with a familiar looking helmet stepped out.

“Ladybug,” he drawled.

“LUCKY CHARM,” Marinette shouted, hoping for a miracle. Maybe she could create a giant butterfly net out of thin air - or even better, what if she could summon Chat Noir-

A bottle of polka-dotted dish soap fell into her hands.  

“Well, well,” Hawkmoth said. “You’ve just put yourself on the clock, now, haven’t you?”

Marinette rolled to the side as Queen Wasp dive-bombed her, clutching the soap to her chest as she swung to avoid an akumatized butterfly. She didn’t have a spare moment to think, she needed a distraction, she needed-

“Where’s Chat Noir?!” she shouted, giving up subtlety and squirting the dish soup like a water gun at incoming insects. It seemed to stop Hawkmoth’s butterflies and Queen Wasp’s minions, but _there wasn’t enough soap for this_ and she was still surrounded and her earrings were beeping.

“Somewhere you can’t find him,” Hawkmoth snarled. “Give me your miraculous, Ladybug, and this will all be over. I win.”

There was no way they were going to take her miraculous, not now, not ever. Marinette used her body to cannonball into Queenie, but-

In front of her, Queen Wasp froze.

Marinette took the opportunity to squirt the bottle of dish soap directly into her eyes, and then snatched the comb out of her hair. “Gotcha!” she yelled triumphantly, about to throw the comb on the ground to smash it, when she looked up into the blank eyes of _Chloe Bourgeois._

Chloe shook herself, gasped at something behind Marinette, screamed, “LADYBUG!” and tackled them both to the floor.

“Chloe,” Marinette breathed, her brain coming to a screeching halt. She ignored the beeping in hear ears. “You’re - you are - you’re Queen Bee?”

 _Queen Bee, hesitant and unsure of her powers._  

_Queen Bee, picking her over Chat Noir._

_Queen Bee, crying and trembling and shielding them from an akuma anyway._

_Chloe Bourgeois, calling her a waste of space-_

Chloe looked up and caught an akuma heading straight for Marinette’s face with her bare hand.

“MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!” Marinette screamed. In her peripheral vision, the drones reverted to normal and the city pieced itself back together. She still had the damaged comb clutched in her hand, but she could purify it later, if only-

On top of her, a single tear dripped off Chloe’s face as a pale purple rolled up her forearm.

Marinette’s earrings let out their fifth beep.

 

* * *

 

A single _cataclysm_ destroyed the whole attic. It was one of the shortest transformations of Adrien’s life.

“Are you really just going to leave him there?” Plagg asked through a mouthful of cheese, gesturing to where Adrien had left Gabriel on his bed.

“Yes,” Adrien answered shortly, opening his chest pocket for Plagg to fly in. “Where else would I bring him to? Jail? My father is fucking Hawkmoth, Plagg. Let’s go. We have to find Ladybug.”

Plagg hovered over Gabriel for a moment more. “Are you sure this is him?” Plagg asked. “Look at his face. He looks like he’s aged about 20 years.”

“That’s because he got stabbed, Plagg,” Adrien huffed,shoving a piece of cheese in his kwami’s face. “Come _on.”_

The house was strangely deserted - no Natalie, not even the kitchen staff - and as he wandered out towards the gate, he saw nothing but chaos as yellow skinned people with unnatural stinger tails terrorizing the unaffected. “Ew, that’s creepy,” he muttered. “But the hold breaks when they sting someone, right?”

Inside his pocket, Plagg shrugged. “If you mean the hold breaks immediately after they’ve just killed someone else, then yes.”

“Great,” Adrien said. “Great thing to wake up to. You ready to go again?”

Plagg swallowed, and then said though a mouthful, _“In a minute.”_  

“Would you hurry up, please?”

“You’re the one who had to burn your house down!”

“I thought taking his miraculous would stop his powers,” Adrien said, looking out into the street. “Isn’t that how it works?”

“It should break his hold over Chloe and Pollen,” Plagg said. “But you’ll probably need the Miraculous cleansing for the full effect.”

As if on cue, a volcano of ladybugs, exploded over the city - Adrien’s head snapped towards the source, hands jittering with excitement. “There you go, my lady,” he whispered to himself proudly. “Plagg, you ready yet?”

“Fine,” Plagg huffed.

“ _Claws out!”_

The butterfly miraculous stuffed in his pocket, Adrien leapt over rooftops, reassuring himself as he went. If the Miraculous Cure had gone out, than Ladybug had cured Chloe’s akumatization, right? If Ladybug and Chloe were okay, that was all that mattered.

It didn’t matter that his father was Hawkmoth. Maybe it was all a mistake, anyways. An illusion. After all, after two years of desperately fighting the terror of Paris, it was rather anti-climactic for Adrien to have taken out Hawkmoth practically in his _sleep-_

“Chat Noir?”

Adrien let out an embarrassing yelp and whirled around, staff held defensively in front of him as an orange-clad girl landed on the roof in front of him. _“Volpina,”_ he snarled instinctively, but then paused at the slightly differences. “Did you change your hair?”

“I’m not Volpina,” the girl insisted, “I’m a miraculous holder!”

Adrien snorted. “I’ve heard that one before.”

“No, I really am,” the girl said. “Master Fu sent me.”

He made a snap decision - if she knew Master Fu’s name, what were really the chances that she was an akuma? “Fine,” he said out loud. “I already have Hawkmoth’s miraculous, so - fine, sure, whatever. You’re one of us. What’s your name?”

She stared at him with wide eyes. “Rena Rouge,” she said carefully. “You’re more sarcastic in person, you know.”

“I’ve had a shit day,” Adrien said flatly.

Rena Rouge raised an eyebrow. “And if you have Hawkmoth’s miraculous,” she said, pointing toward’s Adrien’s destination, “then what is _that?”_

Adrien whipped around just in time to see what looked to be the live formation of a blizzard centered near the Arc de Triomphe. “Son of  _a bitch_ _,”_ he swore emphatically, patting down his pockets to make sure the miraculous was still in there. “Maybe - fuck, maybe he made two before he went down. I don’t fucking know.”

Rena stared again. “You also have a dirtier mouth in person.”

“I’ve had a really shitty day,” Adrien said, stretching his shoulders. “If you do want to help, just try to keep up with me, got it?”

“Got it,” she answered. “Hey, at least your day can’t get any worse, right?”

Adrien felt a smile break across his face in spite of himself. “You’re probably right,” he said. “But never say never. Come on, let’s go!”

The two of them made their way across Paris. The temperature dropped the closer and closer they got to the center of the blizzard, along thicker and thicker layers of layers of ice in an unnatural pattern, as though the ice was flung from the central location and stuck wherever it landed.

“Cha- _ah!”_

Adrien caught Rena Rouge by the arm before she fell off the roof. “Careful!” he said.

“It’s slippery,” Rena said, gripping him by the forearm to steady herself.

Adrien looked down. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but maybe going on the street would be faster,” he remarked, looking down. “There’s no ice in the place with a building in the way, look.”

“Let’s go, then,” Rena said.

The streets were (wisely) largely deserted - Adrien didn’t know if that was the result of the previous akuma attack, or the cold, or what. The only noise was the whistling of the wind through the narrow streets, and Rena’s occasional chatter as they hopped from iceless pach to iceless patch.

“Chat Noir?”

“Yeah?”

“What did you mean when you said you had Hawkmoth’s miraculous?” she asked.

“Hawkmoth kidnapped me and tried to take mine,” Adrien said simply. “So I stabbed him in the leg and took his instead.”

“Whoa,” Rena said. “Hardcore.”

“Right?” he said, and talking like this to Rena Rouge, ignoring that Hawkmoth was his father, it wasn’t that bad. He patted his left pocket and said, “It’s in here now.”

“What was it?”

“Bow tie,” Adrien said. “Or a pin shaped like a bow tie, at least. Maybe I’m biased, but it was pretty ugly.”

Rena laughed. “Not like your ring, right?”

“The ring _goes,”_ Adrien said. “My powers are all hand based - cataclysm and stuff. It’s a theme. You have a necklace, right?”

“It’s a good necklace,” Rena insisted. “Although surprisingly I haven’t gotten a lot of comments on it. I started wearing it weeks ago, and-”

“Sh!” Adrien ordered suddenly, throwing out an arm halting them before they went a corner. “Do you hear that?”

He was asking just out of habit - Ladybug and Queen Bee _never_ heard anything - but Rena frowned and one of the orange ears on top of her head flicked. “The wind,” she said. “It’s gone.”

Adrien stared at her in surprise.

“What?” she asked. “Am I wrong?”

“No, you’re right,” Adrien answered, flustered, pulling his baton out from behinds his back. “Real question, _why_ is it gone?”

“Where did it go?” Rena murmured, watching with interest as Adrien flicked open the end of his baton and then extended it out beyond the end of the corner. “What are you doing?”

“Periscope,” Adrien answered, tilting the end still in his hand so Rena could see. The street around the corner was somehow worse than the street they were on; the streets and buildings weren’t just covered in frost with some icicles hanging from the roofs, but _slabs_ of ice covering every imaginable surface. There was white-blue figure in the center of the street, almost blending in with her surroundings, but behind her…

“I thought you said you took Hawkmoth’s miraculous,” Rena said quietly.

“I did,” Adrien whispered, pulling the butterfly pin out of his pocket, squeezing it even as he showed it to her.

Rena glanced from the miraculous to the screen. “But if that’s Hawkmoth’s miraculous,” she said, “Then who is-”

 _“I don’t know,”_ Adrien hissed, staring in confusion at the outline at the blurred purple figure, who seemed to be - _strategizing_ with his akuma right now. “Two Hawkmoths?” he mumbled, forcing himself not to think that _maybe his dad might be innocent, after all._ “That would explain him suddenly being able to summon two akumas, but when - how -”

“Chat Noir,” Rena said suddenly, pointing to a particularly large ice block on the akuma’s left that Adrien had taken for a moped. “Can you zoom in?”

“Sure,” Adrien answered, pinching the screen to see -

 _“Oh my god,”_ Rena breathed. “Is that…?”

Adrien stared stupidly at the image of Ladybug, frozen solid with an expression of horror on her face in a block the size of a coffin. “At least her miraculous is safe,” he mumbled.

“Is that all you can think about?!” Rena exclaimed. “Ladybug is - mmph!”

Adrien slapped his hand over Rena’s mouth. “ _Be quiet!”_ he ordered, retracting his staff. ‘They’ll _hear us.”_

Rena glared but stopped shouting, so Adrien slowly removed his hand.

“We have to think about this,” Adrien said. “Best case scenario: You distract Hawkmoth and the akuma while I cataclysm the ice Ladybug’s inside. The two of us then can distract both of them while Ladybug recharges, and then she can tap in for me. That is, assuming, that the two of us can take the two of them in a fight.”

“That’s the best case?” Rena asked. “What’s the worst?”

Adrien grimaced. “Ladybug’s dead in there,” he said. “And you’re an akuma sent to trick me.”

“I’m not an akuma, and _Ladybug’s not dead,”_ she hissed. “Besides, there aren’t just two of us, right? Where’s Queen Bee?”

He blinked. Chloe had been the wasp akuma, which meant she must have still been close to the scene when Ladybug cleansed her akuma. However, if Ladybug hadn’t been able to get away… “She’s probably frozen too,” Adrien decided. “I haven’t heard anything from her. Unfortunately, Ladybug's the one who can cleanse the akuma, so she has to be the priority rescue.”

Rena took a deep breath. “Okay, we have a plan,” she said. “You take Ladybug and run, okay? I’ll hold them off.” She took her flute out from where it had been strapped diagonally across her back.

Adrien eyed the flute cautiously. “You know how to use that thing?” he asked.

“Of course,” she said. “Like I said, I’ve been using it for weeks.”

“For…” Adrien trailed off, narrowing his eyes. “I’ve been smelling a dog on the rooftops for weeks,” he accused. “It was _you?”_

“You don’t exactly smell friendly yourself, monsieur,” Rena chided. “I’m headed to the rooftops. Give me 30 seconds.”

Adrien nodded decisively, watching as she hopped up out of his sightline and counted to herself. If Rena Rouge’s powers were anything like Volpina’s had been-

“Hey, Elsa!” he heard his own voice shout, and Adrien peaked curiously around the corner. There, drawing the akuma and Hawkmoth’s gaze, was a fully fledged version of _himself._ “You ever heard of letting things go?”

“Oh, she’s good,” Adrien mumbled to himself, and sprinted around the corner.

He skidded immediately on the large swathes of ice covering the road, but before he could slip completely he heard a _shwing_ noise and the sound of something metal connecting with the ice below him.

Oh, he thought, looking down. His boots were ice skates now. That was handy.

With his newfound speed, he was able to close in on Ladybug’s ice coffin fairly quickly and _cataclysm_ it straight into pieces. Hawkmoth, who hadn’t given nearly as much chase as his akuma, looked around at the sound of cracking ice. “No!” he cried.

Adrien caught Ladybug before she could fall completely to the ground and clutched her to his chest. “Yes,” he argued, and leaped out of the way of a swarm of purple butterflies before he could come up with a good pun. Ladybug was motionless against his chest.

The butterflies seemed to be slowed down by the cold more than Adrien was, because he was able to stop them pretty easily by showering them with snow from his ice skates. “You can’t run, Adrien!” Hawkmoth shouted after him. “I have Chloe Bourgeois! If you run away from me, I guarantee this is going to be the last time you ever see her! _Give me your and Ladybug’s miraculous before anyone gets hurt!_ ”

Adrien glanced over his shoulder despite himself, just enough to confirm that the akuma was a Chloe-shaped ice sculpture.

She was. 

 _Ladybug can fix anything,_ he repeated to himself, and jumped away. He had barely landed on the rooftop when Ladybug’s transformation broke.

 

* * *

 

_Marinette was floating. It was soothing, but not enough to displace the niggling sensation of tension in the back of her mind. Focusing on the problem just made it worse; she remembered an explosion of white, a villain shouting, a girl who might have been her sister crying with rage until she was silenced. They were missing something, Marinette knew. There was something that would change everything, she just had to wait for it..._

 

_Her world was still and silent, until it wasn’t, rocking back and forth with the the scent of not-quite-leather that made her finally relax. This is it, she thought inexplicably. Whatever this is, I’ve been waiting for this._

 

* * *

 

If Ladybug had been chilling in his arms, her civilian form was _glacial._

Adrien tucked her as tightly to his chest as he could manage. It’s a good thing he was a pro at rooftops by now, because the added pressure of _don’t look down don’t look down don’t look down_ ensured that he was practically staring at the clouds as he passed. If he looked down, he’d be tempted to look for a pulse, and-

It should be about lunchtime, he calculated. Hawkmoth knew who he was, so he couldn’t go home. At the same time, he had to put Ladybug down _somewhere._ Somewhere he could trust.

He landed on a fire escape outside a window he had only seen once or twice before, and in his civilian form, to boot. Hiding Ladybug from view as best he could, he knocked as best he could by kicking the window with his shoe.

It took five seconds, but his knock was answered. Nino’s eyes widened behind his glasses, and then he hurriedly shoved the window open. “Chat Noir?” he asked incredulously, craning his head to try and see girl Adrien was hiding by awkwardly twisted away. “And…?”

“Can I come in?” Adrien asked, pushing down his sigh of relief and using his most professional voice. “It’s an emergency.”

“Yeah, of course,” Nino said, scrambling away from the window. Adrien ducked inside and placed Ladybug down on the bed, immediately placing a pillow over her face and then hiding the rest of body with the blankets. She was wearing pajamas, he noted idly. “Um,” Nino said. “You’re not smothering her, are you?”

Adrien grabbed a second blanket, pulling it around to cover the top of Ladybug’s head down to her nose, and then removed the pillow. “No,” he said, looking over his hasty job. It wasn’t pretty, but she could breathe and hopefully it would warm her up. “This is Ladybug.”

“That’s _Ladybug?!”_ Nino echoed, glancing over at the pile of blankets with a hole for her mouth. “She’s asleep!”

“I didn’t say it was a conscious Ladybug,” Adrien said.

“People usually specify that sort of thing!”

“I said it was an emergency!” Adrien yelled, and then his ring beeped three times. He glanced down at the remaining paw-pads - he hadn’t even noticed the first two beeps. “Oh, crap.”

“Why oh crap?” Nino asked. “Why are you beeping?”

“My transformation’s wearing off,” Adrien said, squeezing his eyes shut. “And I used up my supply of emergency cheese earlier.”

“What?!” Nino blinked. “Like, permanently?”

“No, not permanently,” Adrien sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose - not successfully, he could barely feel it though the mask. “Look, just - do you have any cheese? I know it’s weird, just - I need it and like 5 minutes of privacy to keep up the transformation.”

Nino stared at him. “I’ll check the kitchen, man” he said. “Hey, has anyone ever told you that you’re weirder in person?”    

“I’ve actually been getting that a lot today,” Adrien answered. “Thank you, Nino. Wait, actually -” he pulled the butterfly miraculous (if it even was one) out of his pocket and handed it to Nino. “-could you have onto this for me? I don’t want it to disappear with my pockets.”

Nino stared at the butterfly pin for a few seconds. “I guess the entire city owes you a few weird favors if you’re Chat Noir,” Nino told him. “Sure thing, dude.”

After receiving a handful of balls of mozzarella and being promised 5 minutes of privacy, Adrien detransformed. “Here you go, Plagg,” he said, setting the cheese down on Nino’s desk, hyper aware of Ladybug’s untransformed body lying behind them with only a few blankets in between. “So, as you’ve probably noticed, things have only gotten stranger.”

“How did you have Hawkmoth’s miraculous?” a voice asked in his ear.

Adrien shrieked, jumping about a foot in the air and whirled around to see a bright red _thing_ proportioned roughly the same as Plagg. “Ladybug’s kwami?” he blurted out. “You scared the shit out of me! Where did you come from?”

“Hi Tikki,” Plagg said, and then floated down to the mozzarella balls. It was a real sign of crisis that he didn’t complain before settling in to eat.

“I was waiting for you to be alone,” Tikki said “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. Just, please explain to me - if Hawkmoth is still active, how can you have his miraculous? I’m sure I sensed the real thing, so how….?”

Adrien shrugged, looking helplessly from Tikki to Plagg. “Beats me,” he answered. “Two Hawkmoths? Fake Hawkmoth? I even don’t have a bit of a clue.”

Tikki glanced over at Ladybug’s prone form. “There is still a Hawkmoth out there,” she said. “Ladybug saw Chloe get akumatized.”

“As Queen Wasp?” Adrien asked, confused. “But Chloe was missing all day, how did she - wait.” He stared at the red kwami. “Did you say Ladybug saw _Chloe?”_

“Chloe wasn’t akumatized the first time,” Tikki answered. “It was technically her Miraculous that got corrupted - the dark energy Hawkmoth was gathering was enough to akumatize even a kwami. Ladybug had to remove the Miraculous to cleanse it, and revealed Chloe.”

Adrien blinked. “But then Chloe...got…”

“She’s Cold Comfort now,” Tikki said. “She jumped in front of Ladybug to stop Ladybug from being akumatized, and all she wanted was to freeze time before Ladybug’s transformation wore off.”

“Freeze taken a little too literally there,” Adrien muttered.

Tikki paused. “Time might also slow down the closer you are to her,” she admitted. “I couldn’t really tell, between getting frozen, and then being with you.”

“That’s fine,” Adrien said. “That’s - it’ll be fine. Do you know where her akuma is?”

Tikki paused, looking at Plagg, who stopped chewing at Tikki’s look.

“Well?” Adrien asked. “Do you know or not?”

“The akuma didn’t touch an object,” Tikki said quietly. “The akuma - it went straight into Chloe’s hand. She is the akuma now.”

Adrien’s heart lurched, and he had to reminded himself to breathe again. “Okay,” he said out loud. “Okay, okay, okay, okay. That’s different. We’ll figure it out, right? We’ll figure it - we’ve always figured it out, we’ll figure it out this time too. How’s Ladybug?”

Plagg floated back up from the desk. “Alive,” he said confidently.

“For now,” Tikki added darkly.

It was like the floor had suddenly been removed underneath him. “For now?” he echoed, whirling on Tikki. “What do you mean, _for now?”_

“She was frozen solid,” Tikki continued. “And she was stuck there for several minutes. That’s not something humans normally come back from.”

He gaped at the kwami. “She was Ladybug!”

“That’s the only reason she’s breathing now,” Tikki snapped. “Adrien, I need to be realistic with you. She might not wake up, and she certainly won’t be up for akuma-fighting anytime soon without a miraculous cure.”

Adrien tried to swallow, but found his throat was suddenly too dry. “No,” he said.

“You have to beat and cleanse the akuma,” Tikki insisted.

“Chat Noir can’t cleanse akumas,” Plagg interrupted. “And he certainly can’t do a ‘miraculous cure,’ Tikki, you know that.”

“No,” Tikki said. “But Ladybug can.”

“Ladybug’s also indisposed!”

“Whoever wears the earrings will become Ladybug,” Tikki hissed.

Adrien’s world stopped.

“That’s not true,” Plagg hissed back, ears flattening on his head. “Only a few could even put one on without going mad-”

“Adrien’s connection with the Ladybug miraculous is strong enough,” Tikki said. “He can do it. The akuma has to be stopped.”

“Adrien’s connection with the Ladybug miraculous is _through me!”_ Plagg argued. “I will not let you _manipulate_ him like this-”

“What must be done must be done,” Tikki said.

Plagg whirled on Adrien. “The miraculous cure will cure everything up to the point where you put on the earrings,” he said. “It won’t cure what came before your time. It won’t help your Ladybug. Those earrings are the only thing keeping her alive right now, if you take them off-”

“ _Plagg!”_ Tikki screeched.

“-she’ll die.” Plagg finished.

Adrien founded his voice again. “Then I’m not doing it,” he said. “Me and Rena Rouge will figure it out another way.”

“ _There is no other way!_ ” Tikki said. “Unless you’d like to tell him exactly what can go wrong, _Plagg-”_

“Maybe I should!” Plagg yowled back. “One small mistake and we’ve banned the topic forever, even though it worked perfectly-”

“You call Felix a _small mistake?”_ Tikki spat. “His selfishness _killed-”_

 _“Felix was not a mistake,”_ Plagg spat. “None of my chosens were mistakes!”

“Think objectively,” Tikki said. “Hawkmoth is going to _win_ if we don’t-”

They were interrupted by a knock on the door. “Um, Mr. Chat Noir?” Nino called. “Are you okay in there?”

“Claws out,” Adrien whispered. The transformation was instantaneous. He spared no look for Tikki as he hopped out the window.

Ladybug and Queen Bee might be out for the count, but he was _Chat Noir._ He could figure it out - Ladybug’s life depended on it.

 

 

.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which I probably left you with more questions than answers...whoops. Don't worry, they'll keep coming. Thank you to all my lovely reviewers, I appreciate your comments so much!


	12. Cold Comfort

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for lots of violence in this chapter.

Now that he knew what to look for, it was relatively easy to track the dog-smell on the rooftops back to Rena Rouge. He actually caught her leaving a building not too far from Nino’s place. “Hey,” he called from the roof, and took a deep breath. “Foxy lady!”

She looked back up at him, squinting in the afternoon sun. “Chat Noir!” she called back, leaping up to the rooftop next to him. “I managed to shake the ice queen and Hawkmoth, but it was close. I can only hold illusions for about five minutes before I need to recharge, and - where’s Ladybug? Is she okay?”

Adrien swallowed. “No,” he said. “Hawkmoth akumatized Queen Bee’s civilian form, and Ladybug took the hit for it. We’re the ones who are going to have to take her down.” It was intimidating, the way that Rena was looking at him. “I think her akuma name is Cold Comfort. She can freeze anything she touches, so be careful not to touch her. And besides the ice powers, she also might be able to locally slow time, so don’t get too close.”

“Take down an akuma,” Rena Rouge repeated. “Just the two of us?”

“Yeah,” he said.

“Where is the akuma hiding?”

“She is the akuma,” Adrien said. “It apparently touched her bare hand.”

 _“She_ is the akuma?” Rena echoed. “Seriously? We’re going to have to break _her?_ That’ll be fun.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Adrien said.

“Once we get the akuma,” Rena asked, “how are we going to cleanse it? I thought only Ladybug-”

“We’ll figure that out too,” Adrien said.

Rena inhaled sharply. “No offense, Chat,” she said. “But do you have any plan, whatsoever?”

Adrien stared at her blankly. “Win,” he said. “Or die trying. Hawkmoth knows Queen Bee’s and my secret identities, there’s no - there’s no going back, for me. Everything I love is in danger.” He was struck by a thought. “You don’t have to come. I’d understand - there’s a chance Ladybug is going to pull through naturally, so if you just want to wait and hide out I’ll at least hold them- ”

“I’m not leaving,” Rena interrupted, crossing her arms. “I’ve been waiting around and learning how to use my powers for long enough. Even if I did just hide and wait for Ladybug, she’d kill me if I let anything happen to you, so...”

Adrien examined her. Her gaze was serious, her arms were crossed, and her ears were leaning back and pointed out in a way that made Adrien suddenly understand why everyone said Chat Noir was easy to read. “Okay,” he said. “Let this be your official welcome to the team, then. Sorry I didn’t get to it earlier, but I had to _trot.”_ He paused for effect. “Get it? Like fox tr-”

“That wasn’t good,” she said.

“Oh, come on,” Adrien said. “I just met you today. I haven’t had time to study up on foxes.”

“This is why your team is only two people now, isn’t it?” Rena asked.

“You don’t even know the half of it,” Adrien said. “Ladybug and Queen Bee had a whole insect solidarity thing going on. You and me, we’re team _mammals.”_

“Fun,” Rena said dryly. “Come on, are we going or what?”

 

* * *

 

Hawkmoth (the second) and Cold Comfort (Chloe) had vanished.

“What do you mean, this is where you left them?” Adrien said, eyeing the Eiffel tower from two streets behind it. He pulled up his baton in telescope-mode to see if their enemies were at the top, but no luck.

“I mean, this is where I ditched them,” Rena said, twirling her flute in her hand. “I was sort of running for my life, you know.”

“Most akumas take the top,” Adrien muttered, closing his baton with a snap. “I don’t like this. They’re playing smart, which is exactly what we don’t need. This stinks of a trap.”

“I could send in a fake you again,” Rena offered. “And a fake me. They definitely realized it wasn’t you, by the end, and I’m pretty sure they saw me.”

“Before you high- _tailed_ it out of there,” Adrien mumbled to himself. “No, then you’d only have five more minutes. We can’t risk it so early.”

“So what’s the plan?” Rena asked. “Just walk straight into the trap?”

“I’ll do it,” Adrien decided. “If I get stuck, I can just cataclysm my way out. You hang back and-”

“And what?” Rena asked. “Watch? I don’t exactly have an infinite length yo-yo!”

“Fine!” Adrien snapped. “We’ll take the top of the Eiffel Tower, make them come to us -”

“You want to wait on top of the giant _smooth metal sculpture_ for an akuma who _ices things over?_ You were on the rooftops, you know how slippery-”

“We don’t have time for this!” Adrien interrupted. “Fine, we wait on the ground but _follow my lead.”_ He snapped his baton to vaulting length. “I never questioned Ladybug this much.”

“Ladybug wouldn’t-” Rena started, and then cut herself off with a grimace. “Sorry. I’m just worried, I guess. I’ve never - and now Ladybug and Queen Bee are gone, and-”

Adrien moved over and put his free hand on her shoulder. “Hey,” he said gently. “Ladybug and I would both be toast right now if it wasn’t for you. You’re doing amazing.”

“Thank you,” Rena Rouge said, looking down and fiddling with the keys on her flute still.

“You can stop worrying,” Adrien continued. “We’re going to win. I always have, anyways. And team mammals has now doubled in size, so I’m sure that’s a plus. I’m so glad you’re here. We’re going to take down Cold Comfort, save Ladybug, make sure Queen Bee doesn’t have to take an akumatization for us a _third_ time, and-”

“Wait,” she interrupted. “What do you mean, Queen Bee took an akumatization?”

Adrien froze.

“Is that _Queen Bee_ in there?!” Rena exploded. “You didn’t think-”

“Would you look at that, it’s go time!” Adrien interrupted, planting his staff and pushing himself upwards. His staff lengthened and shortened mostly by willpower, so he may have been overeager - he launched himself directly onto the concrete platform in front of the Eiffel Tower on his first jump, far outpacing Rena.

It was at least empty - multiple akuma attacks had that going for it, at least. Civilians had cleared out, and Adrien only caught a glimpse of Paris security huddling in the ticket booths. “Alright, Hawkmoth!” Adrien shouted, his voice ringing through the deserted space. “I’m here! The party can start now.”

There was nothing.

 _“Hawkmoth!”_ Adrien repeated, clenching his fists around his staff. “I swear to god, if you don’t come out right now I’m going to take Ladybug’s miraculous and chuck it in the bottom of the fucking o-”

His ears picked up a whistling noise behind him. He dodged left just in time-

 

* * *

 

Nino cautiously rapped on his own bedroom door. “Um, Chat Noir?” he asked, feeling stupid. At least his parents were still at work and none of his older siblings were home for a visit. “Are you still in there? You said five minutes, and it’s been, like, fifteen.”

There was no reply.

“I’m coming back in,” he announced loudly, opening the door to his room and peering through. Ladybug was still on the bed where he’d left her, but Chat Noir was gone.

 

* * *

 

He dodged left just in time to avoid the icicle that would have impaled the back of his head.

As it was, it pierced the top of one of his leather ears with a quiet  _rip_.

Adrien whipped around, off-balance, tail lashing behind him as he properly confronted the latest akuma for the first time. She was frozen with her nose stuck up in the air, haughty and unchanging, completely translucent - like it would only take one strong blow to shatter her to a million pieces. Completely Chloe, in all the worst ways. “Chloe,” he breathed.

He was prepared for the standard speech _(T_ _here is no Chloe, I am Cold Comfort now, and I will defeat you in order to carry out my evil plan)_ but she said nothing, just fired more icicles from the tips of her outstretched fingers.

Adrien blocked and dodged them expertly. He’d been worried about the time-slowing-down that Tikki had mentioned, but so far Cold Comfort seemed just like a run-of-the-mill akuma. “Chloe!” he repeated louder. “Where is Hawkmoth?! If I can take his miraculous, I can save you and Ladybug and this will all be over!”

She didn’t answer. The icicles ricocheted off Adrien’s staff with alarming velocity, wedging themselves in whatever surface they happened to land on. He hoped Rena Rouge continued keeping her distance. “ _Chloe!”_ he pleaded. “Answer me! _Please!”_

He didn’t think that would work, but Chloe stopped firing at him for a second a cocked her head instead, the familiar butterfly mask of Hawkmoth’s influence. He bounded forward and stopped mere inches from Chloe’s ice-sculpture body. “Hawkmoth, you son of a bitch, if you don’t come out here you’re _never_ getting the Ladybug miraculous, do you hear me? You can kill me, you can raze Paris to the ground, but you will _never_ get-”

“I’m not going to kill you,” a voice said behind him, and Adrien whirled around once again to find Hawkmoth behind him.

“ _Finally,”_ Adrien spat. “Game’s up, Hawkmoth. Hand your miraculous over.”

The man smirked under his helmet. “Stealing my lines, Chat Noir? Where is Ladybug?”

“Hidden somewhere you’ll never find her,” Adrien ground out. “Now hand your miraculous over before I _make you.”_

Hawkmoth’s smirk disappeared. “Going out alone was reckless, Adrien. You never learned to watch your back.”

“I never-” he started.

“CHAT LOOK OUT!”

Adrien was thrown to the floor under the force of a body - Rena Rouge - tackled him out of midair, landing them both near the front support of the Eiffel Tower. Cold Comfort and Hawkmoth were charging after them. “She was going to freeze you solid!” Rena yelled in his ear.

“Thanks,” Adrien said, hefting them both to their feet. “You keep the akuma occupied, I’m going to take Hawkmoth. Let’s _finish this.”_

“Gladly,” Rena said.

Adrien leapt in Hawkmoth’s direction, bringing his staff down on Hawkmoth’s cane with a loud _clang._ Hawkmoth immediately jumped away after, but Adrien was stronger and faster - Hawkmoth didn’t have a chance, and he knew it.

“Adrien,” Hawkmoth said, breathing deeply from exertion. “Think about what you’re doing!”

“Bringing down Paris’s most wanted?” Adrien asked sarcastically. Hawkmoth was dodging in circles, like a butterfly, but he was out of any other options unless he dropped Chloe’s akumatization to try to make another.

“You’re fighting your family!” Hawkmoth cried. “Your own father!”

“My father is _home,_ in bed,” Adrien shouted. “Your sick mind game didn’t work, Hawkmoth.”

“I am your father!”

Adrien scoffed loudly. “Right,” he drawled. “Okay, Darth Vader, drop the transformation and prove it.”

“Drop _yours,”_ Hawkmoth countered, pointing towards their right, “and I’ll spare your friend’s life. I have the feeling you could use it - that’s the reason you are without Ladybug, isn’t it? She’s died because of you!”

He glanced over in the direction Hawkmoth was pointing, and his heart skipped a beat. Rena Rouge had an icicle impaling her wide tail to the foundation of the Eiffel Tower, and Cold Comfort was advancing with a cloud of white mist pouring from her hands like liquid nitrogen. Unlike Adrien’s, Rena’s tail didn’t seem to be detachable.

“Cold Comfort,” Hawkmoth ordered. “Freeze her!”

“NO!” Adrien yelled, abandoning his staff to jump in front of Rena. He reached up and blocked Chloe’s outstretched arm with his right hand, only for the ice to start creeping up his arm instead. He lost sensation in the arm almost instantly.

“Chat!” Rena yelled.

 _“CATACLYSM!”_ Adrien bellowed in a panic.

For a brief moment, the world was silent.

 

And then the ice started to crack.

 

* * *

 

“Chat Noir?” Nino called to the empty room again, but the only noise was the sound of the curtains flapping in the breeze. He crossed the room and shut the open window before turning around and staring at the unidentifiable mass of covers on his bed. “Um...Ladybug?”

She didn’t answer either.

Nino pulled the other item Chat Noir had entrusted to his possession out from his pants pocket. The purple, butterfly-shaped pin almost pulsed with light in his grasp. “And what are you supposed to be?” he wondered out loud.

 

* * *

 

 _Can cataclysm destroy anything?_ Adrien had once asked Plagg, after his first embarrassing misuse on his first day out.

 _Anything,_ Plagg had answered. _Any one thing. You can choose what to destroy by touching it._

 _But what if the object was hard to touch?_ Adrien had responded. _Like, could I touch a door to destroy the deadbolt locking the other side?_

 _A novice like you couldn’t,_ Plagg said. _You’ll learn the more you use it. For now, just know that cataclysm has no scale. You could destroy the door and the lock with it, too._

He had frowned. _No scale at all? But what if my one object, was say, a whole room?_

 _Kid,_ Plagg had said. _Your one object could be all of Paris if you thought it was necessary._

Adrien’s eyes widened as he saw his cataclysm overtake the akuma’s freezing touch, watching as the the darkness consumed both the ice on his arm -

 _Destroy the akumatization,_ he thought desperately. _Not Chloe. Just Hawkmoth’s butterfly. Leave Chloe, leave Chloe, leave Chloe -_

It was too late. The spell had already been released. He could no more change his one destroyed object than Ladybug could change her lucky charm.

Chloe, being made up of the same ice that had crawled up his arm, shattered with it.

He was distantly aware of Rena heaving the icicle that pinned her tail to the wall out like a bad thorn, and them scrambling to his side, grabbing hold of his traitorous right arm. “Chat Noir, Chat - oh,” she said, looking down at the shattered remnants of an ice sculpture that had once held the form of Chloe Bourgeois.

A purple butterfly struggled up from the fragments. Adrien caught it and shredded it neatly with one swipe of his claws. “Mi-” he started hoarsely, watching as a purple bit of wing landed on what had once been Chloe’s cheek. “M-miraculous ladybug.”

Rena’s grip tightened around his arm, but nothing happened.

“MIRACULOUS LADYBUG,” he repeated, shaking Rena off. “MIRACULOUS - QUEEN BEE, GET UP, CHLOE, GET UP! MIRACULOUS _LADYBUG!_ ”

“Adrien,” Hawkmoth said suddenly. “It’s not going to work. She’s dead.”

He rounded on Hawkmoth. “She’s not dead!” he declared desperately. “Miraculous Ladybug can fix anything, she’s not dead! She won’t be dead!”

“If you didn’t want her dead,” Hawkmoth said, deathly serious, “Then you shouldn’t have killed her.”

Adrien roared and leapt at the man, only to get knocked out of the sky by Hawkmoth’s cane again. “It’s over, Adrien!” Hawkmoth shouted, summoning another purple butterfly in his free hand. “Give me the miraculous and I promise everything will go back to the way it should be!”

 _You know, Adrikins,_ Chloe had once asked. _What’s your miraculous power? If Ladybug’s fixes everything, does yours, like, destroy everything in Paris?_

“Chat Noir!” Rena screamed, grabbing him by the tail and trying, unsuccessfully, to haul him backwards. “You can’t let him akumatize you! Calm down! We have to run, you’re beeping!”  

 _You’re stuck with me, Adrien Agreste,_ Chloe had once swore on her mother’s grave. _I promise, I’m never going to leave you._

“Miraculous Chat Noir,” Adrien growled, opening his palms in front of him.

His left hand - the one without his ring, without cataclysm - started glowing a bright green, the color of this paw on his ring. Adrien stared at it curiously for a second, watching as the light danced on his hand.

Then he looked up at Hawkmoth and smiled.

“You’re dead,” he declared under his breath.

“Chat,” Rena begged, still holding his tail.

He dragged her along with him as he surged towards Hawkmoth, pouncing on the villian with a snarl and _scratching_ his green hand down Hawkmoth’s arm. The three of them fell forwards -

 

onto some grass?

 

-and Adrien’s transformation roughly broke.

He felt one of Rena’s hands yank him backwards by the back of his shirt and heard her playing the flute with the other. He sensed, rather than saw, the illusion of invisibility surrounding them.

Hawkmoth didn’t question it much, just pushed himself off the ground and started sprinting away.

"STOP-" Adrien shouted, taking one step forward, the threat of vengeance still surging in his veins. 

He was quickly stopped by Rena’s choking grasp on his t-shirt. “Chat,” she repeated, hauling him back to her level, “Don’t. Without your powers, you’re not going to be able to do-” she stopped dead as she saw his human face. “Wait. Adrien? I mean, he was saying Adrien, but you’re _the_ Adrien?”

He glared at her defiantly out from under his bangs. “Yeah, like the fragrance,” he said irritably. “Let me go, he’s getting away and _he killed Queenie_ -”

Rena stared at him blankly. “Adrien,” she repeated. “Holy shit, how did I not-”

 _"He's getting away!"_ Adrien repeated, wrenching himself out of Rena's grasp. He turned away, staring out at their grassy surroundings, trying to figure out which way Hawkmoth had gone. Actually - he had to figure out where  _they were._  He couldn’t even _see_ the Eiffel Tower in the distance. Where were they?

“Wait!” she called. Her necklace beeped once. “I’m about to change back too, and fair is fair-”

“What are you-” he started, turning around in time to see her orange suit peeling away, and then his mouth was dropping open. “Alya?!”

“Surprise,” she whispered weakly.

“Alya,” he repeated. “You’re - you - where did you get a miraculous?”

“I tracked down Master Fu and made a few persuasive arguments,” she answered. “How long have you been Chat Noir?”

“What do you mean, how long?” he asked. “I’ve been Chat Noir the whole time.”

“Chat Noir was sitting one row down from me the whole time,” Alya said. “And none of us noticed?”

“Guess not,” Adrien said, looking away from Alya and around again at their surroundings. “Hey - I think I recognize this place. This is a graveyard. Actually, I think this is-”

“Sh!” Alya interrupted, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him behind a tree. “I heard something!”

Adrien nodded. Listening closely, he could heard footsteps along the gravel path and a low muttering of voices. “Who is it?” he breathed.

Alya poked her head out around the tree, and Adrien followed suit. He watched as two figures came around the bend and into eyesight.

“Um, Adrien,” Alya said. “If this is you, then who is _that?”_

Adrien watched himself - fiddling with his blue scarf and perpetually frowning - trail behind a yappering Chloe, who was looking at her phone and not even a slightly at where they were going. “I never needed Sabrina, anyway,” Chloe was saying. “She’s like a rat. People always say mousy, but that’s too good for her. Rats are dirty liars _and_ they’re never good for anything, just like Sabrina and her ugly little-”

“Enough, Chloe!” he heard himself shout, Adrien and Alya flinched and went back to hiding behind the tree, hands gripping the smooth bark. “I listen to you complain about strangers, our classmates, but - Sabrina’s your _best friend!_ Doesn’t that mean anything to you? This is the last straw, Chlo! When I came to school I could barely recognize you, you selfish - mean - you don’t even know how much your words sting people! It’s like you’re the world’s worst, most persistent bee.”

“Oh god, are you still on that bee thing?” Chloe said. “You got stung on the ass once four years ago, you started wearing thicker pants and got over it-”

They heard past-Adrien stomping by the other side of the tree. “We’re done, Chloe,” he called. “Consider this friendship over.”

“Adrien, wait,” Chloe said. “You don’t understand, Sabrina is-”

“I said we’re done!”

“Stop,” Chloe panted, running after him. “Please, wait. I can - I can change, I can be better, if it means that much to you -”

Behind the tree, Adrien turned to Alya with wide eyes as they waited for the other two to pass them by. “What,” Alya repeated, “was that?”

Adrien tapped the trunk of the tree with his fingertips, considering. “I remember that fight,” he said slowly. “Alya, this is going to sound nuts, but - I had that fight with Chloe nine months ago.”

“Kid,” Plagg said from Adrien’s front shirt pocket. Adrien and Alya both jumped back in surprise. “I might be able to offer some explanations, but first you gotta work with me. Where is the cheese?”

 

* * *

 

Nino was sitting at his desk, still staring at the mysterious pin Chat Noir had given him, when he heard a rattling gasp from behind him. Spinning, he turned around just in time to see his friend shrugging of the blanket-fort Chat Noir had built. “Marinette?” he asked. “ _You’re_ Ladybug?”

Marinette blinked, frowning at him, her eyes dropping from his face to the pin in his hand and back. “Nino,” she gasped, “You’re Hawkmoth?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *whispers* it was a time-travel fic all along 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who reads, and especially those who comment! It's super helpful to know what you guys are thinking.


	13. The Guardian

After walking out of the cemetery, they took a taxicab back to the city’s center and then to a cafe Alya swore had a good cheese platter. 

“I know restaurants,” Alya hissed at Plagg, under the guise of hissing at Adrien. “My mom’s worked at a million of them.”

Adrien looked down at Plagg in his lap, who had narrowed eyes at Alya. “I know that...I’m picky, Alya, but I also trust your judgement.” He narrowed his eyes back at his kwami. “I won’t complain.”

Plagg started kneading Adrien’s leg with his teeny tiny claws. Adrien made a pained face at Alya. 

Alya just smirked and patted Trixx in her pocket, saying, “I’m not scared of you.” 

They scooted themselves into the back corner of some out-of-the way cafe where Alya assured them that they had very little chance of running into their past selves, and ordered as much food as they could with the cash Adrien had left in his wallet. 

“Okay,” Alya said, picking at her food. “Newspapers have confirmed that we are indeed nine months in the past.” 

Adrien glared at Plagg, who was stuffing his mouth with cheese. “Talk,” he ordered. 

Plagg swallowed a mouthful with reluctance. “Let me finish my meal,” he whined. “You’re not making Trixx stop eating.” 

“I wasn’t the one hiding things from my chosen,” Trixx replied smartly. “I admit, this is a first. I’m shocked too.” 

“ _ Talk,”  _ Adrien repeated. 

“What’s there to say?” Plagg said. “I told you not to use your miraculous power. You did anyways. Now we’ve time-traveled.” 

“Why can I time-travel?” 

“What we you expecting to do?” Plagg demanded. “You knew it wasn’t Ladybug’s cure!” 

“I knew that,” Adrien said. “I wanted to destroy stuff.” 

“You can already destroy whatever you want to,” Plagg said. “It’s not that.” 

“But Ladybug creates-”

“Ladybug has  _ spatial manipulation,”  _ Plagg interrupted. “Kid, backup. Why does Hawkmoth want the ladybug and black cat miraculous?” 

Adrien blinked. “Whoever owns both at the same time can reshape reality to make a wish,” he parroted. “But the wish has an equal and opposite reaction.” 

“Right,” Plagg said. “They can reshape reality. Now, Adrien, you’re a smart kitten, so tell me: what are they two basic components of reality?” 

Adrien frowned. “Matter and energy?” 

“Matter  _ is  _ energy,” Plagg scoffed. “Get out of your three-dimensional brain for a second. If Ladybug has space manipulation, you have...”

Adrien looked back at Alya, who was watching with wide eyes behind her glasses. “Time,” he finished. “I can time travel?” 

“You can time travel!” Alya exclaimed. “This makes so much sense! You and Ladybug always seemed a little unbalanced before, but this is how Chat Noir can fix akumas! If you go back in time and make sure they never happened in the first place-”

Adrien snorted. “Fix akumas? I’m the one who brought back a second Hawkmoth to...”

She frowned. “Agreste? You still in there?” 

“Oh, my god,” Adrien breathed. “This is all my fault. I brought back a  _ second Hawkmoth.  _ The whole two akuma thing - we were wondering how for so long, and it was my fault the entire time!” 

“Seems that way,” Trixx said. 

“Trixx,” Alya hissed. 

“What?” Trixx asked. “The only way this could have been avoided was if the kit has listened to his kwami, or if his kwami had been honest with him in the first place.” 

Plagg swallowed another bite of cheese. “Don’t you give me lectures on honesty,” he said. 

“No, she’s right,” Adrien said. “Why didn’t you tell me?” 

“Lots of reasons,” Plagg said. 

“Name one.” 

“I’ll name  _ several,”  _ Plagg hissed. “First of all, you are  _ reckless.  _ You’re one of the most reckless black cats I’ve ever seen. You’d think the power of total destruction might cow you into forming a plan every once in a while, but no. You ran into your very first battle crying  _ cataclysm  _ at every little thing. You almost murdered your first victim right then and there.” 

“Hey,” Alya said. “Ladybug messed up the first time too. She didn’t cleanse the akuma either.” 

“If it wasn’t for Ladybug shaping up,” Plagg said, rising a few inches off the plate, “You two wouldn’t have lasted a month.” 

“Where is this coming from?!” Adrien exclaimed. “Why haven’t you said any of this before?”

“Ladybug has,” Plagg said. 

“Ladybug isn’t my kwami!”  

Plagg sighed, sinking back down. “That’s true,” Plagg said. “The second reason I didn’t tell you is because I was lazy. The current system worked, and it was easy for your little brains-”

“What’s the real reason?” Adrien asked. “You and Tikki were arguing about someone named Felix. Who was he?” 

“You don’t want to know,” he answered flatly. 

“Tell me!” 

Plagg let out a long sigh. “You really want to know?” he asked. “Fine. Felix was you.” 

 

* * *

 

Marinette bolted upright out of bed. The last thing she remembered was getting blasted in the face by a freshly-akumatized Chloe, and now here she was still in her pajamas from this morning in a room she didn’t recognize and  _ Nino was here,  _ staring at her, and  _ oh my god he was holding the butterfly miraculous-  _

“Nino,” Marinette choked, “You’re Hawkmoth?” 

“What?” he asked. “No! Of course not! What, dude,” he glanced down at the miraculous in his hand, “No way. Is this…?” 

“Well, you’re holding Hawkmoth’s miraculous,” Marinette said, bracing herself for a transformation. 

“Chat Noir gave it to me!” Nino blurted out. “Don’t look at me like that, I didn’t know what it was.”

She let out a breath of relief. “Oh, good. Chat Noir gave - wait. Chat Noir gave you Hawkmoth’s miraculous? Chat Noir defeated Hawkmoth?!”

“Um,” Nino said. “I don’t know. He didn’t say much.”  

She kept glaring. “What did he say?” 

“He just ran in, hid you under some blankets, said you were Ladybug, asked for some cheese and 5 minutes of privacy, and if I could hold onto this for safekeeping. He left before I saw him again.” 

“That sounds like Chat,” Marinette muttered, flexing her fingers. “He’s terrible at plans. Did he say where?”

Nino just stared at her. 

“What?”  Marinette asked. 

“You’re Ladybug,” he said. “Like, actual Ladybug?  _ The  _ Ladybug?” 

_ “Yes,”  _ she hissed. “And if you don’t tell me where Chat Noir went, I’m gonna-”

“He didn’t say!” Nino yelped. “Geez, calm down. It’s not right when your good friend Ladybug looks like she’s about to murder you.” 

Marinette deflated. “Sorry,” she said. “This is weird, I - I don’t know why Chat brought me here, and why he thought it was okay to show you my identity-”

“He, um, didn’t mean to,” he said. “I don’t think he looked himself. He covered you up with the blankets pretty well, it wasn’t until you sat up that…look, can I ask you something? As your friend?”

“Of course,” she answered. 

“Are you and Chat Noir dating?” he asked her. “Because Alya always swore that….why are you looking at me like that again?” 

 

* * *

 

“Look,” Plagg said. “Here’s the thing about timelines. You can go back in time and change things, but it destabilizes anything time dependent like that. It’s like a crack in reality. Chat Noir  _ is  _ a master of destruction, but even he can get lost if things go sideways.” 

Adrien blinked. “Felix was me who got lost?” 

Plagg sighed and looked over at Trixx, who just flicked an ear in his direction. “I had a holder in a previous timeline named Felix Agreste,” Plagg said. “Things were different there. Hawkmoth was technically there but a lot less active, they were namely fighting - it doesn’t matter. It didn’t happen here.” 

Adrien frowned. “Why does Tikki hate him so much?” 

“Tikki doesn’t hate him,” Plagg said. “The Ladybug kwami,” he added to Alya. 

“She seemed pretty mad,” Adrien said.  

“She just didn’t want you to time travel in case you released the lich’s life force back onto the mortal plane,” Plagg said dismissively. “Also, Felix kind of cracked the timeline really bad and now nothing looks the same and Tikki was a little attached. She’s over exagerating, really.” 

“What?” Alya asked. “Did you say a lich? What’s a lich?” 

“ _Over e_ _ xaggerating?”  _ Adrien echoed in disbelief. 

“Not important right now,” Plagg said. “The important thing is getting you two back to the correct time in one piece.” 

Adrien’s eyes widened. “Oh, crap,” he said. “I’m gonna break the timeline again, aren’t I? Then none of us will exist anymore and-”

“Relax,” Plagg interrupted. “Don’t worry. Just don’t change anything until after the younger you goes back in time the first time, and this becomes a time  _ loop  _ instead of an alternate time  _ line.” _

“I don’t get it,” he said. 

“I think I do,” Alya said. “A time loop, like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban style. You said it yourself: there have been two Hawkmoths. The time loop could have been happening the whole time, you just didn’t know it.” 

Adrien shot her a look. “This was my fault the whole time? The two Hawkmoths - all those akumatizations -  _ Queenie - _ ”

“Is Queen Bee Chloe Bourgeois? “ Alya interrupted. 

Adrien looked down, fidgeting with his ring in his lap. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “She, um - yeah. It was her.”

“Wow,” Alya said. “I - she’s better at it than I’d thought she’d be.” 

He looked back up. “Was that a pun?” 

Alya’s cheek twitched in the ghost of a smile. “Maybee,” she said.

Trixx cleared her throat loudly. “The longer we stay here, the more chances there are to change something,” she said. “You should go back to your own time right away.” 

“And leave Hawkmoth here?!” Adrien asked incredulously. 

_ “Yes,”  _ Trixx hissed. “What is, is.”

“She’s right,” Plagg agreed. “We’re ready to transform again. Just do what you did last time, and think about home.” 

“Home,” Adrien said. “Okay. Got it.” 

He left enough cash on the table to cover their meal, and he and Alya snuck out to the back alley. 

“...this is weird,” he remarked. “I’ve only ever transformed in front of Chloe before.”

Alya frowned. “Not Ladybug?” 

“No,” Adrien answered. “Only me and Chloe knew each other's identities, and even that was an accident. It was safer in case one of use got....akumatized.” 

Alya nodded somberly. “Yeah,” she said. “I can go first.”

“No, it’s dumb,” he said. “It shouldn’t matter. Claws out.” 

“Let’s pounce!” 

With a flash of light two superheros took their place in the alley. Adrien stared at his right hand with not a small amount of trepidation. “I’m nervous,” he admitted, absurdly glad that this was Alya he was stuck with and could admit this to. 

“It’s okay,” Alya said, reaching over and grabbing his right hand. “Just think about home, Plagg said.” 

Adrien wrenched his hand out of Alya’s grip. She stared at him in confusion. “Sorry,” he said. “I - that’s my cataclysm hand. Sorry.” 

“You won’t hurt me,” she said softly. 

“That’s what Chloe thought,” Adrien said. “Miraculous Chat Noir.” 

His hand erupted in a green aura once more. His miraculous power was almost like a flame, licking up and down the sides of his fingers, wisps floating up and dissolving into the surrounding air. Alya slowly wrapped her hand around his right upper arm, while he flexed his fingers and watched his power burn. “Ready when you are,” she said. 

He nodded, reaching out slowly and made a clawing notion the length of his chest in the air in front of him. His claws caught on something invisible and slashed it open, leaving a bright-green tear in their wake. 

At his side, Rena blinked, staring at the puncture in reality. “Whoa,” she said. “Trippy.” 

Adrien gulped, tightened his right arm to his side to make sure Rena Rouge was thoroughly wedged against him, and leaped. 

 

* * *

 

Marinette scoffed and pushed back the rest of the blankets. “Chat Noir is my _partner._ You find out I’m Ladybug, and that’s really the first thing you want to ask me?” She pushed herself to her feet and immediately staggered.

“Whoa,” Nino said, standing up and grabbing her forearms to steady her. “Careful. You’ve been out of it for like, at least a half hour now. And who knows how long before Chat Noir brought you here.” 

“It can’t have been that long,” Marinette said, standing up straight. “I mean, depending on how quick he found me, but we can track each other in uniform. If he was outnumbered, he probably would have just rescued me and ran. What I still don’t understand is how he got Hawkmoth’s miraculous. If he defeated Hawkmoth, then why did he leave again? Where did he go?”

“The akuma alert is still on,” Nino said. “But there’s no news. I haven’t heard from Alya in a while, either.” 

“Maybe a police block finally managed to stop her,” Marinette mused. “Whatever, I have to suit up and get back out there.” She took a step towards the window, but stumbled under her own weight again. 

“Dude!” Nino called in concern, catching her again. “I don’t think you’re in shape to be suiting and swinging anywhere.”

Marinette growled in frustration. The only place Chat Noir could possibly be was fighting the last akuma, assuming an akumatization could outlive its maker - but it must, because the butterfly miraculous was here, and Chat wasn’t, and Queen Bee (who was Chloe  _ who was Chloe oh god don’t think about that now-) _

One step at a time. At least she could secure the butterfly miraculous. 

“Fine,” she declared. “No swinging. I could use some help walking someplace though. I hate to ask you, but could -”

“I’m coming,” Nino said firmly. “You’re still as pale as a ghost. Plus, I’m not about to let Ladybug go and collapse on the street somewhere. Chat Noir gave me one job.” 

“Two jobs, technically,” she said. “But don’t worry. You can drop off at least one of them.”

He looked offended. “I’m not leaving you.”

“Not me,” she corrected. “It’s the butterfly. There’s only one person you’re supposed to leave that sort of thing with - the miraculous guardian.”

 

* * *

 

Adrien and Alya emerged, once again, on a plot of grass between a gravel path and a tree. 

“Here again?” Alya said, looking around at the graveyard. “Adrien, do you think your power is broken or something?”

He blinked. “I don’t know. Maybe...if my power is anchored in time, it should be spatially constant, right? So maybe this is just where my power dumps us off.” 

“This is a weird place for that,” Alya said. “This is the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, right? It’s nowhere close to where we were. If there was a spatial constant, I would have thought it would be the location you use your power.”

His leather ears flicked as he picked up a distant noise. “Maybe the spatial constant is me,” he said.

“What?” 

“I hear my past self again,” Adrien snapped, looking around for a good hiding spot. “Come on, Rena, up the tree.” 

“Up the  _ tree?”  _ she hissed. “You sure we’re not going to get stuck up there, cat-boy?” 

“Just go,” he hissed back, giving Rena a boost with one hand before climbing back up into the tree himself. “They’re coming.”

They settled up in the foliage of the tree when a younger Adrien and Chloe again ran up the path in front of them - a  _ much  _ younger Adrien and Chloe. Chloe ran by first, her black dress flaring behind her, until a pebble got caught in her mary-janes and she tripped to her knees. 

“CHLOE!” an 8-year-old Adrien shouted behind her, huffing against the restraints of his necktie. “Where are you going?” 

“Away,” Chloe said, examining her black stocks. There was now a large run ending with a hole in the knee. “I ripped my tights.” 

“That’s okay,” small Adrien said, shrugging off his suit jacket and throwing it on the ground next to her. “There. Now my jacket’s dirty. We can rip a hole in that too, if you want. It’s too hot for jackets and tights.” 

Another crunch in the gravel caught Chat Noir’s sensitive ears. He glanced away from his younger self and caught sight of Chloe’s butler watching the two of them from several yards away, unnoticed by the two children.

Chloe sniffed. “Yeah,” she said, voice watering. 

Adrien the younger made a distressed face, sitting down in the gravel next to Chloe. “Do you want ice cream?” he asked. “It’s ice cream weather. I’ll get us whatever flavors you want.” 

“I don’t want ice cream, Adrien,” Chloe snapped, tears leaking from her squinted eyes. “Stop offering me things!”

He flinched. “Sorry,” he said, reaching over and grabbing Chloe’s hand. “I just want to help.” 

“You  _ can’t,”  _ Chloe said. She blinked rapidly and glanced at Adrien for three seconds before she threw her arms around him, burying her face in the shoulder of his black dress shirt. “I just miss my mom,” she sobbed. “I just miss my mom!”  

Adrien returned the hug fiercely, squeezing Chloe around the ribcage. He started sniffling loudly the harder Chloe sobbed. “I - I know,” he stuttered, pressing a wet cheek to Chloe’s hair. “I m-miss her too.”  

She pulled back. “Why are you crying?” she accused. 

“Cause you’re crying,” he said. “I can’t help it.” 

She scrubbed her cheek with her sleeve. “I want to go back to last year,” she said. “When my mom would bring me in and your dad would bring you in and - and we would play together in their office-” Her voice broke. “I don’t want my mom to go.”

Adrien blinked tears out of his eyes. “I can’t get you that,” he answered. “All I can get you is stupid ice cream.” 

“You’re stupid,” she said. 

“You’re stupid,” he shot back. “How long do you think we can hide out here?” 

“I don’t know,” Chloe said. “I’ve never been to a stupid funeral before. I don’t want to go back. Let’s stay out here forever.”

“Okay,” he agreed. “That sounds good.”  

Up in the tree, Rena Rouge turned to Chat Noir. “I’m not sure how to approach this,” she said. “I know I’m not the most sensitive of people, and I’m sorry, but I really think we should get out of here sooner rather than later. This situation gives of the ‘major childhood influence’ vibe and I don’t want to get into it.” 

“Sorry,” Adrien whispered, not taking his eyes off little Chloe. 

Rena sighed next to him. “What happened to your kwami’s instructions? Were you really thinking about home?” 

“Sorry,” he repeated. “I guess I was thinking about Chloe and death.” 

She blinked. “This is way above my pay grade,” she mumbled. “I’m sorry, Chat, I wish you had someone nice like Nino or Marinette with you instead of me, but - we don’t have time to mope right now. You need to open another portal.” 

He ripped his gaze away to glare at her, but called anyways, “Miraculous Chat Noir.” With a flash of claws he called open another glowing green portal that blended in with the leaves around them. 

“Are you sure we’re going home this time?” Alya asked. 

“I’m trying my best,” Adrien seethed, and pushed her in first.   

 

* * *

 

“But, like, how did you get away to go be Ladybug all the time?” Nino asked. 

“Lots of bathroom breaks,” Marinette answered. The stairs down from Nino’s apartment had been tricky, but she was getting stronger and strong with each step towards Master Fu’s place. “And you remember all those times I ‘ran home’ when an akuma alarm sounded?” 

“Oh, my gosh,” Nino said. “I never really noticed, because Adrien and Chloe did the exact same thing, and at least you lived right next door to the school.” 

“Adrien and Chloe are rich,” Marinette answered. “Of course their parents would want them home.” She nudged Nino with her elbow. “It’s this street,” she told him, turning left. 

“Remind me again where we’re going?” Nino said. 

“The miraculous guardian,” Marinette answered. “He guards the other miraculous so they can’t be abused, and distributes them when the need arises. He gave me and Chat Noir and Queen Bee ours.” 

“Whoa,” Nino said. “How? Did you have to go through a big ritual or something?” 

“I helped him across the street,” she replied. 

Nino squinted at her. “Are you messing with me?” he asked. “I feel like you’re messing with me.” 

She rolled her eyes. “Come on, you scaredy cat.” 

“If you start flirting with me like I’m Chat Noir I will scream,” he said seriously. 

“I don’t flirt-” she huffed. “Whatever. We’re here.” She pushed open the door to Master Fu’s massage parlor, bell jingling over their heads as they crept in. The mid-afternoon light immediately faded away; the curtains on all the windows had been drawn completely shut, the only light coming from a few candles sparsely decorating the room. “Master Fu?” she called out. “It’s me, and my friend Nino. He knows, so it’s okay.” 

Master Fu shambled out from the back hall. “It is good to see you. I have sensed many strange happenings today, Lady-” he took one look at her and cut himself off, eyes widening. 

“Nino,” Marinette repeated. She gestured, Master Fu’s eyes tracking her hand the whole time. “I trust him with my life, don’t worry. We have something for you.” 

“We do?” Nino echoed, tilting his head at Master Fu in a way reminiscent of Alya’s suspicious glare before turning to her. “Marinette, this guy? Are you sure?” 

Marinette sighed. “Yes, Nino, this is the Miraculous Guardian, Master Fu. Master Fu, this is Nino. Now, I don’t know the whole story, but somehow Chat Noir defeated Hawkmoth and gave the butterfly miraculous to Nino before running off somewhere, so Nino’s here to give it back to you.” 

This seemed to snap Master Fu out of his trance. “Chat Noir gave the miraculous to you?” he asked Nino. “Are you sure? For what purpose?” 

“For safekeeping,” Nino said. “I don’t know, he seemed really stressed out. He ran out to do something else right after. Hey, is there a way we can call him?”

“I’ll take care of that after I transform,” Marinette said. “Look, for now we’re just here to give the miraculous back.” 

Master Fu blinked slowly at them. “I see,” he said softly. “While it was an honor serving you, Ladybug, I am well past my prime. I could have retired many years ago. I am afraid I cannot in good conscious accept the butterfly miraculous.”

“That’s crazy,” Marinette snapped. “What else are we going to do with it?” 

“Chat Noir has chosen a new guardian,” Master Fu said, staring pointedly at Nino. 

Nino gulped. “What?”

“What?” Marinette echoed. “He did  _ what?”  _

“Are you looking at  _ me?”  _ Nino asked. 

“You have earned both the trust of Ladybug and Chat Noir,” Master Fu said. “Welcome.” 

“With all due respect, sir, I don’t think Chat Noir was really going for that,” Nino said. “He was probably just dropping things off at the first convenient stop.”

“The reasons do not matter,” Master Fu. “A new guardian has been chosen. The black cat miraculous, along with the ladybug, is alone capable of appointing a new guardian. Chat Noir has proved that he trusts another more-”

“He wasn’t  _ thinking,  _ that’s what he was doing,” Marinette snapped, reaching down to pop open the clasp on her purse where Tikki must be resting.

“Yeah,” Nino agreed. “No offense to Chat Noir, of course, but I’m not exactly looking for a job right now? I can point you to some people.” 

“The reasons matter not,” Fu said. “Marinette, if what I sense is true, you will need a willing and capable ally in the upcoming fight.”

“I’m supposed to already have two,” she said. “What, Chat defeated Hawkmoth but he couldn’t even wait 5 minutes? I’m going to kill him. Tikki, spots on.”  Her heart skipped as no transformation ensued. She stared down at the empty shadows of her purse, eyes wide. “Tikki?” she repeated.

The shadows opened a pair of green eyes at her and blinked. "I thought you were supposed to be the smart one," the shadow muttered. "Could you do us all a favor and look at your hand?" 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I wrote this chapter before the new episode, so this work is now firmly an AU in more ways than originally anticipated.)
> 
> Hope this chapter made sense! Thank you to all my beautiful reviewers, you guys rock!


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Previously on Queenie)
> 
> The shadow in her purse opened a pair of green eyes at her and blinked. "I thought you were supposed to be the smart one," the shadow muttered. "Could you do us all a favor and look at your hand?"

Despite herself, Marinette followed the  _ thing’s  _ order and glanced at her hand, where she noticed an unassuming silver band sitting on her fourth finger. She stared at it for a second, and then picked up her purse and dumped it upside down. The shadow floated out, flicking its cat-like ears- 

_ cat- _

“No no no no no,” Marinette said, staring from the black kwami to the ring on her finger and belatedly reaching up to touch her earlobes. They were empty.  “What have you done with Tikki?” she snapped.

“Nothing,” the kwami answered. What was his name, Chat Noir had said something like - plaque? 

Marinette pulled her hands back from her empty ears  _ (and how could she have not noticed they were gone, how, when her earrings were practically an extension of her body)  _ and stared again at the silver band sitting on the her fourth finger. The silver color was different than she was used to, but she’d know that shape anywhere. 

Well, that shape combined with the black cat kwami, at least. 

“Hello?” the kwami in question drawled. “Come on, I thought you were supposed to be the smart one.” 

Marinette rounded on him and hissed, “If anything happens to Tikki or Chat Noir, I am going to - to -”

“Trust me,” the kwami said. “I feel the exact same way.”

 

* * *

 

The next portal led them out into central Paris, where it was somehow still daytime; Adrien felt like he’d been awake for days. They detransformed in an alley and wandered out in search of more cheese, Alya taking the risk to check her cell phone. 

“Well, close,” she said. “We’re only a few days off.” 

“A few days?” Adrien asked. “That’s close enough, right? We can hide out for a few days, wait for the first me to go back.” 

“Maybe,” Alya said, looking doubtful. 

“I vote we do it,” Adrien said. 

“It was your idea,” Plagg mumbled from his resting place on Adrien’s collar. “Of course you vote-”

“I need a nap,” Adrien announced, cutting off his kwami. 

“Fine by me,” Trixx added from Alya’s front pocket. 

Plagg bristled from his on Adrien's shoulder. “You always nap,” he accused. 

“ _ I  _ always nap?” 

“Alright,” Alya said loudly, clapping her hands together. “We’re all overtired. We’ve been awake for days, god knows we look it. Napping has been decided upon. Do we have a place we can go?” 

“I know a lot of rooftops,” Adrien said. “And my house is usually empty, if we want to risk it.” 

“Between past you and your evil Dad?” Alya asked. “No, thanks. We can try my place, it should be safe.” 

“Are you sure?” he said. “You’ll have superpowers too by now, and a lot more siblings-”

“Rooftop it is, I guess,” she interrupted. “Lead the way.” 

Early afternoon on a rooftop wasn’t the best napping option, but Adrien new a place he thought would be relatively shady. Transforming again, he led Rena across the city in a stealthy jot. It was important that no civilians supported them active, or the Ladybug and Chat Noir of this time were bound to get suspicious, so he kept his eyes and ears peeled for-

He and Rena both flinched at the sound of a scream. 

“Akuma,” Rena murmured. 

“Which akuma?” Adrien asked. “I don’t remember an...wait a minute.” He pulled out his baton to check the time. “Ladybug and I should have beaten the Kindergarten Teacher by now.” 

“Maybe things aren’t exactly the same,” Rena suggested. “After all, Hawkmoth is experiencing everything for the second time, right? Wouldn’t he change things if he knows he’s going to lose?”

He frowned. “But Hawkmoth isn’t going to want to break the timeline either,” he said. “Right?” 

“Who knows,” she answered. “Let’s just scout out this akuma, then.” 

They kept behind chimneys and shaded areas, hopping from one shaded balcony to another. Rena Rouge’s shoulders slumped in relief when she caught sight of the akuma, throwing an arm in front of Adrien to stop him. “I remember this one,” she said. “I was in school at the time, but there was a second akuma attack after Kindergarten Teacher. It was a sports fan or something - Ladybug took care of it.” 

“I don’t remember it,” Adrien hissed. “Just Ladybug?” 

“Well, there’s Queen Bee,” Rena said, pointing. “So maybe not  _ just  _ Ladybug, but-”

Adrien’s looked out from their hiding spot on the balcony and saw her. Chloe, dressed up in her miraculous suit, flying straight for the akuma by herself like nothing had happened -

_ \- nothing had happened yet -  _

“Chat!” Rena hissed. “Are you even listening?” 

“She’s by herself,” Adrien muttered. She was by herself, and she was going to get  _ akumatized,  _ she was going to  _ die.  _

Adrien swallowed, and realized suddenly he was going to break the timeline. 

He leapt off the balcony too fast for Rena to follow, landing on the street with far less grace than he usually had, but with as much as he could pull off in his current position. Queenie jumped and whipped around, relaxing for a fraction of a second when she saw him before frowning again, eyes sticking on one of his leather ears. 

_ The one that had been pierced with an icicle,  _ he realized. It had never been fixed - there was no miraculous cure. The battle with Cold Blood felt like forever ago and an instant ago all at once. “What happened to you?” Queenie drawled. The sound of her voice made his throat close up. “You look like you’ve been dragged through a landslide.” 

He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. 

Queen Bee frowned even more. “Please tell me you haven’t been fighting with Ladybug again.” 

A civilian’s scream made Adrien jump. Right, the akuma. “No,” he rasped. “Just stay here, I’ll take care of this.” 

“Are you serious?” Chloe asked. “Again?” 

He ignored her and charged at the akuma. He didn’t have a strategy except hitting as hard as he could; he didn’t know the akuma’s name, or what his powers were, or where the object was, but it was always  _ something  _ on the akuma’s person and he would  _ destroy every goddamn thing  _ if he had to, he was destruction itself, he would destroy the world before he let Hawkmoth  _ take everything away _ \- 

The sight of the akuma fluttering out wasn’t that satisfying, actually. He was almost disappointed when he saw the purple butterfly struggling to get away, reaching for it lazily with one hand. 

_ “Oh my god,”  _ a voice shouted, and suddenly his hands were bound to his side. He froze instinctively as he was hauled towards someone -  _ Ladybug,  _ there she was, both hands on her yo-yo and looking at him like the scum under her shoe. “Chat Noir, what’s wrong with you?” she demanded. 

She was standing there, red and furious and almost vibrating with life, and Adrien remembered: Ladybug was dying too. Frozen. 

“Well?’ Ladybug demanded. 

He wordlessly opened up his hand to release the akuma. Cursing, Ladybug released her yo-yo in order to catch the butterfly, and he scrambled away from her, back up to the rooftops before she could find him again. He relaxed only when he recognized the soft music from Rena’s flute signalling an illusion to cover him. 

“Thanks,” he murmured, watching as below them Queen Bee and Ladybug looked around fruitlessly. 

“You owe me big time,” Rena told him. “We specifically said no interfering-”

“I couldn’t just leave her,” he hissed. “Besides, I think I did this the first time too, if that makes sense. There’s a conversation with Chloe that makes a lot more sense now.” 

“Whatever,” she said. “It’s naptime. We’ve got three days to plan for our next move before the final showdown. If everything happens the same way it did, we can still beat Hawkmoth and avoid the whole Lich situation Plagg mentioned.”

“I’m sorry for running off,” Adrien said. 

Rena sighed pinched the bridge of her nose. “Don’t worry about it. Come on, let’s get that sleep. Things will be better when we wake up.” 

He bit his lip. “Actually, I - I have to ask someone for advice.” 

“Now?” she demanded. “Who?” 

“Not now,” he said ruefully, holding up his left hand. “I’ll be back eventually, I promise.” 

Rena’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “No, Chat, don’t-”

“Miraculous Chat Noir,” he whispered, and fell forward into the green portal by himself. 

 

* * *

 

Marinette blinked at the kwami once, before taking a deep breath and lowering her hands, letting them clench into fists at her sides.  _ (The metal of the ring on her finger didn’t feel foreign at all, even though she’s never worn a ring in her life, it was scary how it slipped beneath her notice.)  _ “Alright,” she ground out with clenched teeth. “I have Chat Noir’s ring. Does he have my earrings?” 

“Yep,” the black cat kwami said. 

“What’s your name?” she asked. 

“I’m Plagg,” he said, staring at her with bright green eyes. “I know who you are.”

“Great,” Marinette said flatly. “What’s your transformation phrase? I need to-”

“Oh no you don’t,” Plagg interrupted.  “You’re supposed to be the smart one. Please think about things for one second-”

_ “Where is he?”  _ Marinette hissed. “I need to transform because I need to find him. If he has the earrings, then I can call him and ask  _ why  _ he took them and  _ where  _ he’s been and  _ what  _ happened with Hawkmoth-”

“What am I, non-dairy substitute?” Plagg interrupted. 

Thrown, Marinette glanced over at Master Fu (who seemed vaguely bemused) and Nino (who looked as confused as ever, but was valiantly trying not to interrupt). “Excuse me?” she asked. 

Plagg rolled his eyes. “Eugh, I hate having to break in new kittens. Newsflash, genius: I know what’s been going on with your boyfriend here. Well, at least since he switched us.”

“You do?” she asked. 

“Boyfriend?” Nino echoed, and then flinched when all three of them turned to look at him. “Sorry, wrong priorities, my bad. Um, switched?” 

Plagg let out a little huff of frustration. “It’s a long story,” he said. “We have just enough time for the short version before we have to go out and help your fox friend with the lich.” 

“Lich?” Nino asked. 

“Fox friend?” Marinette echoed. 

Master Fu winced a little bit. “I may be of a little help telling this story.” 

 

* * *

 

Maybe he was finally getting the hang of this; Adrien popped out at night time, approximately the exact time he’d wanted to. A time when he could catch Ladybug by herself, but she wouldn’t be suspicious - right after he’d already had a conversation with her, but before all their fighting had happened, before the drama - but after Queen Bee had arrived - 

He landed on a rooftop overlooking the park, watching his past self and past Ladybug sprawled on a bench, talking about what a new teammate might mean. Past Chat was all dramatic hand gestures and over-the-top flirtations, while past Ladybug was as coy as ever as she dodged. Adrien watched as Ladybug waved goodbye and started swinging away, his past self staring after her for a few seconds before heading in the opposite direction home. 

Now was his chance. 

Adrien launched himself after Ladybug, catching up as fast as he could without being too close, because he didn’t want her too see the changes - she heard him before she saw him, stopping on a rooftop and turning around with an exasperated smile on her face. “Chat, it’s getting late.”

He stopped on the darkest edge of the roof. His night vision was working perfectly - he could see shine of her hair and the jutt of her hips all too clearly, and he shook his head to clear his thoughts. “Ladybug,” he said softly. He couldn’t linger, so he hand to make his words count. “If it were you or Queen Bee, who should I pick?” 

Ladybug smirked, still clearly in the playful mood from her conversation with the real Chat. “Aw, are you trying to make me jealous?” 

He swallowed back his  _ no, never, there was never anyone else for me but you, and I’m sorry it turned out this way -  _ “Just answer the question,” he growled. “An akuma could happen - anytime. Tomorrow. And if, hypothetically, I’m in a situation where I could only save one…?”

Ladybug’s eyes widened. She stared at him, blinking, and Adrien had to resist the urge to shrink back to hide the scrapes on his costume he knew were there. “Save Queen Bee,” Ladybug said, like he knew she would. “She’s new and could use the help. I’ll be fine, I promise. Where is this coming from?” 

Adrien forced a laugh. “I’m turning over a new leaf, my Lady,” he said, feeling more resolved already. “You know, planning ahead. I have the feeling things are going to be different from now on, so…” 

“That’s what practice is for,” Ladybug said. “You’re overthinking it. Go get some sleep.” 

He took a deep breath, drinking her in. He knew what he had to do, but - this might be the last time he ever saw her awake and speaking. “Right,” he said, mouth dry. “Goodnight, Ladybug. I will,” he paused to make sure he had control of his voice, “miss you.” 

Ladybug nodded. “Goodnight, kitty,” she said, and swung away. 

Adrien stared after her hungrily until she disappeared into the night. He knew what he had to do, now. He had to save Chloe. He had to stop Hawkmoth - stop his father, the right way. He was going to do what Tikki told him needed to be done in the first place. 

He had to go take the Ladybug earrings, and trust that Ladybug was strong enough to pull through without them. It was the only thing he could do without breaking the time stream. 

He glanced down at his ring as it beeped, remembering that he’d already used a miraculous chat noir to get to this time period. Oh, well. He could pick up snacks and a rooftop nap while he was here. He should be safe enough in this time before he could make the jump again.

 

* * *

 

“Alright,” Plagg said, floating above the pad of paper Master Fu had left him. “To recap: Rena Rouge is your allied owner of the fox miraculous. She got left behind about three days in the past, and I haven’t seen her since. The older Hawkmoth has been defeated, so as soon as young Hawkmoth gets pushed back into the past the loop should close and everything should be as good as we can expect.”

“I’m confused,” Nino said. “Who is Hawkmoth? Doesn’t Chat know that?”

“Chat Noir has to be the one to tell you,” Plagg said, glancing at Wayzz out the corner of his eye. “It’s tied up in his secret identity too, which magically I can’t reveal.”  

Marinette’s hands clenched on her knees, fingers digging into the cloth of her pants. “And Chat Noir thought the only way he could save Queen Bee was going back in time,” she said softly. 

“He didn’t know he was going back in time,” Plagg said. “He was just desperate.” 

“What happened to her that’s worse than being akumatized?” Marinette asked. “Chat Noir’s fought akumas by himself when I was busy before. He can stall.” 

“He knew you weren’t coming,” Plagg said. “It’s a miracle you’re awake right now.” 

“Really?” Marinette snarled. “It’s  _ miraculous,  _ you say? He would have stalled, unless something happened to Queenie! What happened to her?” 

“I’m not telling you,” Plagg said, not for the first time. “If I told you, you would go charging in there and breaking the timeline-”

“I thought Chat already broke the timeline,” Nino interrupted. “A little more couldn’t hurt.”

“NO, it - it definitely could.” Plagg brought his paws up to his face. “Humans. Humans, please.”

_ “What?”  _ Marinette snapped. 

“Tell them about their originals,” Wayzz said serenely. 

“Right,” Plagg said. “The originals. Alright humans, new story. Once upon a time I had a holder named Felix-”

“Original, like the original Chat Noir?” Nino asked. 

“How does this help us?” Marinette asked. 

“Let me  _ speak,”  _ Plagg hissed, glaring at them. “No, not the original Chat Noir. Let me start a different way. Once upon a time, Tikki had a holder named Bridgette Dupain-Cheng.” 

Marinette blinked. Dupain-Cheng? Her ancestor - no, wait - 

“Bridgette was a cheerful girl who wore her hair in pigtails and had an embarrassingly large crush on a blond boy in her class,” Plagg continued. 

“Hey,” Marinette said automatically, and then stopped. 

Plagg nodded, expressionless. “She was a little different from you, but not in the ways in mattered,” he said. “Her hair was longer, and she usually preferred shorts to long pants, but she was still Ladybug, and she still worked with Chat Noir. Her partner’s name, out of costume, was Felix.” 

“Felix,” Marinette repeated blankly. The name was almost familiar, even though it shouldn’t be, and she was dreading the reason why. 

“Bridgette and Felix had their fair share of enemies,” Plagg continued. “Not just Hawkmoth. Their life was a little harder because someone had placed a curse on the Chat Noir ring, and then tricked Felix into getting it. This someone was actually trying to get revenge on Felix’s mother, who was - it’s a long story.”

“Felix’s mother was evil,” Marinette blurted out quietly. She stared at the floor for two seconds before raising her eyes to meet Plagg’s. 

“How do you know that?” Plagg asked, sinking to right in front of her face. 

“I don’t know,” she said. “I just do.” 

Plagg nodded, and then flew back to the middle of the group. “Yeah, well, you’re right. Not a nice lady. Tied herself up in all sorts of necromancy business, ended up transforming herself dead so she could have more control of her legions-”

“She killed herself?” Nino asked. 

“Not quite,” Plagg answered. “She made herself undead in order to bring herself immortality. Felix called her a lich. She seperated her lifeforce from her body, storing her lifeforce in an amulet. Normally, as long as this amulet existed, the lich could regenerate infinitely. She could never be killed.”  

Nino wrinkled his nose, and Master Fu steepled his fingers in front of his face, frowning at the scene in front of them. Marinette licked her lips and asked the question she thought she already knew the answer to. “Did Felix and Bridgette destroy the amulet?” 

“No,” Plagg said, voice hard. “Felix couldn’t do it. He - he used his powers to throw the amulet out of this time stream. If the lich existed out of time, she couldn’t regenerate. That’s why it was so important to not break the time stream again - if there were any cracks, the amulet could fall back through at the lich would regenerate.”

“Is the lich still Chat Noir’s mother?” Marinette asked softly. “Is that why you didn’t want us to go after it?” 

The black cat shuddered. “No, thank god. Chat Noir has a different mother, this time stream. We just wanted to avoid releasing an agent of pure evil on you if we could. At the very least, we wanted to wait until you were older, and Hawkmoth was gone.” 

“Right,” Marinette said. “But you’re telling us now.” 

“Oh, no, wait,” Nino said. “Does that mean-”

“Yes,” Plagg said. “The time stream was broken. Chat Noir accidently made a change, and the Lich was released.” 

Marinette bit her lip. “Can I - what change did he make?” 

Plagg sank back to the ground. “Actually,” he said, “it was something he didn’t do.” 

“Didn’t?” Nino echoed. "What didn't he do?" 

Master Fu, silent this whole time, heaved a huge sigh to draw attention back to himself. "It was my fault, children," he said. "I hid my true nature from Chat Noir for a long time. He didn’t know.” 

 

* * *

 

_ Alright,  _ Adrien thought to himself, rested and fed.  _ Just one quick jump.  _ One quick jump to the day he defeated Hawkmoth, right after he had left Ladybug with Nino. He’d wait for his past self to leave the room, and then sneak in and take the Ladybug earrings. He could leave his ring with Ladybug - that should be fine, right? Then he could follow his past self to the Eiffel Tower, wait for them all to fall through the time portal, and then pick up the remains of akuma and purify it with Ladybug’s Miraculous Cure. Chloe would be fine, and Ladybug - 

-Ladybug would have to pull through on her own. She’d have his ring. That would have to protect her. 

Time and place entranced thoroughly in his head, he shouted, “Miraculous Chat Noir!” and sliced open a bright green scratch in reality. Hopping through went just as he thought - there was a bit of a difference between dawn and late afternoon, but other than that - 

Wait. Nino’s room was empty. 

Adrien checked his surroundings, but no, this was definitely the right block. Concerned, he knocked at the window the empty room, and then forced it open with pure strength and hopped in. 

Empty. The whole apartment was empty. There was no sign of Nino, or his family, or anything. 

Panicking a little more, Adrien pulled himself back outside and opened his staff to the communication window, broadcasting his location in hopes of seeing Rena’s Rouge’s stylized tail to call. No luck.  _ I can track down Alya, though,  _ Adrien thought, taking deep breaths.  _ Stay calm. I’m sure there’s an explanation. _

First thing to do was to find Alya. Adrien peeked around the corner to the street; there seemed to be police standing around, which was weird, but he had to ignore that. If he could find his teammate, the two of them could track down Ladybug, somehow, and then - 

-his ears perked up at the familiar twang of a cord hitting a nearby roof, and he looked up to see what appeared to be Ladybug’s yo-yo. Adrien inhaled sharply - he must be imagining things, he hadn’t seen Ladybug in so long - 

-the yo-yo retracted, and Ladybug appeared a second later. He stared at her in wonder, her gaze darting around to find him. “Ladybug?” he said hoarsely. 

Her eyes snapped to him, and he could barely blink before being tackled. “Chat!” she shrieked in his ear, her arms thrown around his shoulders and squeezing so hard he could feel his bones grinding together. “Where have you been?! I thought Hawkmoth had your miraculous!” 

“Forget about me, how are you up?” Adrien exclaimed, slipping his arms around Ladybug’s waist and squeezing back. “Last I checked, you were frozen solid.” 

Ladybug pulled back. “I was  _ frozen? _ ” she asked. “I’ve never been frozen, Chat. You’re the one who’s been missing for months.” 

Adrien stiffened.  _ “Months?”  _ he echoed. “Ladybug, what day is it?” 

“June 2nd,” she answered instantly, frowning. “Chat, what’s going on?” 

Adrien’s heart sank. He was here at the right day, at the right time, but why was everything...different...

“Oh, no,” he whispered. Nino was gone, and police were roaming the streets outside his house, and Ladybug was here, and he’d supposedly been missing for months...

He’d broken Plagg’s first rule. 

He must have changed something. Something important. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_...but what? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Confused? Concerned? honestly, so am I. please let me know so I can go back and edit this story into a semblance of sense for at a later date. FYI this thing will probably be about 18 chapters total, if you are curious; the end is near. Coming up next: where is adrien now? how will he get back to save ladybug and chloe? what is marinette going to do with the black cat miraculous?


	16. The Other Timeline

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story has gotten away from me

“Chat?” Ladybug repeated, reaching out and squeezing his arm. “What? Oh no,  _ what?  _ Talk to me.”  __

He glanced over at her. “This is going to sound really weird,” Adrien said, “but I am going to need you to go over every single thing that’s happened in the last nine months with me.” 

Ladybug looked straight back at him, searching his gaze. “That is weird,” she said. “Chat, you’ve only been missing for six.” 

“ _ Six-”  _ he echoed hoarsely, and then cut himself off. “Six months. Okay.”

“You said something about being frozen,” Ladybug said. “Is that what happened to you? I looked everywhere for you, I swear, I promise, I…” she trailed off, squeezing his arm so hard he could feel her hand starting to tremble. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, looking away from him. 

“Whoa,” Adrien said, reaching out to plant both hands on Ladybug’s shoulders. “Whoa, whoa, Ladybug, hey. It wasn’t your fault. This whole thing is  _ my  _ fault, the whole two akumas thing in the first place, it’s on me, okay?”

“No, it’s not,” she argued, glancing back up at him. “Don’t say that, okay? You’ve been missing for  _ months,  _ don’t you dare - don’t.” 

He squeezed her shoulders once before letting go. “If it means so much to you, bugaboo,” he teased lightly, before adding, “can we go to a place we can talk?” 

Ladybug took a deep breath and nodded decisively. “You don’t mind if we take the long way to the Eiffel Tower, do you?”  

 

* * *

 

People were dropping everything to point and gasp as they passed. Ladybug was definitely taking the long way - the long,  _ slow  _ way, drifting lazily between buildings and doing lots of unnecessary flips as she swung from perch to perch. Despite her nonchalant procedure, Adrien could tell how tensely she held herself. Ladybug was not taking this roundabout way for fun. 

Ladybug was going this to show him off. All the pointing and gasping was at  _ him.  _

He’d always gotten a fair amount of attention as Chat Noir, but the sheer bombardement of shocked faces was enough to creep even him out. If he was returning after a long time away, shouldn’t there be...cheering, or something? 

Six months was a long time to leave Ladybug by herself. But then again, Ladybug didn’t seem mad at him, so…

They landed on the Eiffel Tower with a clang, high enough to avoid being overheard and only immediately visible by the elevator passengers climbing to the summit on the opposite leg. “Alright,” Ladybug said. “This place is as good as any. First things first-”

“I’m not your Chat Noir,” Adrien said. 

Ladybug halted. “What?” she said. “You’re not an akuma, and you’re not an illusion. Of course you’re Chat Noir.” 

“Ladybug-” he started. 

“No,” she interrupted. “You think I can’t recognize my own  _ partner?  _ Even after - I don’t care what happened to you, Chat, you came back to me and I’ve dreamed about this and I - I would recognize you anywhere. So of course you are my Chat Noir, kitty.” She turned away from him and sat down roughly on a horizontal beam, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked out over Paris. “Now, as I was saying,” she continued, voice wobbling, “the first thing to do is figure out how to make sure you never disappear ever again.”

Adrien had never seen Ladybug’s eyes gloss over like that - he sat down next to her as close as he could, shoulder-to-shoulder and knee-to-knee before he could even think about it. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m so sorry. Start from the beginning.” 

Ladybug glanced over at him, took a deep breath, and said, “Well.”

 

* * *

 

_ It was September. Fighting two akumas at a time instead of one was... challenging, but not impossible. In the end it wasn’t that much different from when she and Chat Noir had fought one akuma at a time. The akumas often had problems working together, while fighting with Chat these days felt like fighting with an extension of herself.  _

_ “If Hawkmoth was able to get more powers,” Chat told her hopefully, “maybe we will too, LB. Two cataclysms would be nice.” He looked off into the distance, ears twitching. “Or maybe two batons. I’ve been able to break mine into pieces once or twice, but always in the heat of the moment, you know? Never when I was trying.”  _

_ “Two yo-yos would be cool,” she’d agreed. “But my kwami hasn’t said anything like that.”  _

_ He slumped. “Neither has mine.”  _

_ So she and Chat Noir had fought against longer and more frequent akuma attacks, and it was challenging, but not impossible.  _

_ It was three months in it became impossible. _

 

_ *** _

 

_ It was January. There was an akuma attack, and  _ **_Chat wasn’t here_ ** _.  _

_ Ladybug took off the first scene to find the second akuma, tracking it down finally as it terrorized its way around the Louvre, but Chat was still nowhere to be seen. Not on comms, not on her tracker, not anywhere.  _

**_He’s probably just sick_ ** _ , Ladybug thought to herself, even thought she knew deep down that didn’t make sense. Chat Noir would show up even if he was on the verge of collapse. He must be trapped somewhere, maybe. Maybe stuck someplace as his civilian self.  _

_ After a long struggle well into the night she managed to beat both akumas. She collapsed late into her bed and slept it off until bed the next morning.  _

_ It went downhill from there.  _

_ Adrien was the first one to be pulled out of school, never returning after winter break. A red-eyed Chloe Bourgeois informed the class that Adrien’s father felt that public school was a bit too dangerous, and that Adrien was returning to be homeschooled. Marinette, joined by Nino and Alya, had tried to get information out of Adrien themselves concerning the development, but his phone number was disconnected and they couldn’t get in the mansion.  _

_ She still couldn’t find Chat. After the second akuma attack without him, Ladybug started getting questions; after the fifth, it was all anyone could talk about. She dodged the questions for way too long, looking back. Things would have been better if she had addressed them honestly.  _ **_I don’t know where Chat Noir is, but rest assured, I am doing all I can to keep Paris safe and I will not fall now._ **

_ But Chat Noir was always the one who coaxed the big speeches out of her, his silliness necessitating the serious statements, his easy gaze and steady presence adding authority to her voice. And fighting by herself, while possible, was  _ **_harder_ ** _. She was physically tired and mentally exhausted and emotionally -  _

**_(scared guilty terrified furious panicked)_ **

_ -she’d hoped just her outward facade of calm would suffice.  _

_ Without Chat Noir, it was much more difficult to keep civilians out of the way. Even the police’s best efforts were too slow most days. She could still heal all the people, and bring them back, but she couldn’t erase the memories of the pain and mortal injuries.  _

_ She couldn’t bring back the one person she really needed.  _

 

_ *** _

 

_ It was February. Alex was the next one to leave the class; her father got a job at another museum in Lyon. It wasn’t the Louvre, not nearly as prestigious, but it wasn’t Paris. At least, that was Alex’s impression that she relayed in snarly tones during her last week in class.  _

_ After the twelfth akuma attack - 6 weeks after Chat Noir disappeared, almost 5 months after the akumas started coming in twos - Master Fu summoned her back to his shop.  _

_ “Have you found anything?” she’d asked breathlessly. “You know who Chat Noir was, did you find out - can you tell me anything?”  _

_ “He’s disappeared, Ladybug,” Master Fu told her. “I haven’t been able to get in contact, and I fear the worst. Hawkmoth likely has his miraculous by now; he must have found out Chat Noir’s civilian identity.”  _

_ Her heart leapt to her throat. “Who?” she asked impetuously. “I can try to track him down, I can find him, I-” _

_ Master Fu was shaking his head. “It is too dangerous,” he told her. “No, Ladybug. You must not allow Hawkmoth to find you, too. It is my job to keep you safe; I have failed Chat Noir, but I can give you someone else.” _

_ Marinette clenched her fists at her sides. “I don’t want someone else,” she spat. “I want Chat Noir! We  _ **_abandoned_ ** _ him, we have no idea what happened to him, we have to plan a  _ **_rescue!”_ **

_ “It’s too late,” Master Fu said softly.  _

_ Marinette blinked. “You’d tell me if he was dead,” she asked softly, “wouldn’t you?”  _

_ “I will not lied to you, Ladybug,” he told her. “I have no evidence that he is dead or alive, either way.”  _

_ She spent Valentine’s Day patrolling Paris by herself, reliving her past days with her partner by her side.  _

 

_ *** _

 

_ It was March, and she finally accepts a new partner. Marinette chooses the fox miraculous and delivers it to Alya herself. Her best friend is ecstatic, peppering Ladybug with questions and brimming with an enthusiasm that hasn’t dimmed throughout all of Paris’s doubts.  _

_ “I’m not going to lie to you,” Marinette told her, clenching her yo-yo in one fist. “The job is dangerous. Chat Noir just - disappeared one day, and I can only assume Hawk Moth got to him. That could happen to you, too, if you aren’t careful.”  _

_ “I understand, Ladybug,” Rena Rouge said, twirling around trying to get a good look at her tail. “I know the risks, I’ve wanted this for ages. Anything to help Paris, I will.”  _

_ “As long as you stay safe,” Marinette said.  _

_ Alya catches on to her powers quickly; of course she did, after all that time chasing villains for the Ladyblog. While their partnership isn’t quite as seamless as hers and Chat Noir’s, it was easy between them. _

_ “Ladybug,” Nadja Chamack asked her one day, “Tourism to Paris is projected to be extremely low this year, which will be a huge blow to local economy. Do you have any plans to find Hawkmoth before he forces more and more families out of Paris?”  _

_ Marinette ignored her, readying her yo-yo for another throw, when Alya replied, “No comment, Nadja. Can’t let the bad guys know our strategies!”  _

_ She threw a grateful look to her best friend, and they leapt away together to a nearby roof. “Good thinking, Rena,” Marinette said.  _

_ “You should probably think about talking to reporters occasionally,” Alya said. “I know you’re really into your whole dedicated, stoic thing, but - don’t misunderstand me, Ladybug, but you used to talk more, and it might help if you went back to that. More easygoing.”  _

_ “But I’m  _ **_not,”_ ** _ Marinette spat, suddenly filled with rage. “I’m  _ **_not_ ** _ easygoing, Rena. Do you not understand? You joined the losing side.”  _

_ “Hey-” she said suddenly, but Marinette was already swinging away. _

 

_ ***  _

 

_ The worst akuma by far was one named Ninja Master. Not because he was particularly different from any other akuma, but because he was wearing a black, skintight outfit and for a second she’d thought Chat Noir was back. Her heart  _ **_stopped_ ** _ and restarted dangerously a whole five seconds later, clanking off-kilter in her chest the entire rest of the fight.  _

_ She’d barely shouted  _ **_“miraculous ladybug!”_ ** _ before she was swinging away back to her balcony - she transformed immediately after she landed in her bed, clutching her chest. Her heart’s rhythm was wrong, just like her fights were wrong and her life was wrong and -  _

_ “We have to rescue Chat,” Marinette whispered to Tikki, who was just staring at her concerned. “Tikki, I can’t do this anymore, I can’t live like this, I have to find out what happened to him.” _

_ “Master Fu said it was too dangerous,” Tikki reminded her.  _

_ “Master Fu sits in his house all day,” Marinette hissed back. “What does he know about danger? Tikki, spots on.”  _

_ She swings back to the tea shop in a hurry, kicking open the front door. “Master,” she announced loudly. “Enough is enough.”  _

_ He hobbled out from the next room to meet her in the foyer. “Ladybug, what is it?” he said, eyes wide.  _

_ “It’s about Chat Noir,” she snapped. “I demand you tell me who he is. Now.”  _

_ Master Fu’s eyes widened. “Ladybug, LOOK O-!”  _

_ She was slammed in the middle of her back by something huge - a shoebox, it turned out. The akuma had been following her, right into the middle of the shop. Rena Rouge arrived quickly, and they were able to take care of the akuma, but it was still too close a call. The miraculous weren’t safe here any more.  _

_ Master Fu took all his secrets and become one of the many people fleeing Paris.  _

 

_ *** _

 

“I stopped looking for you,” Ladybug continued, gazing out over the river. A small crowd of people - reporters, mostly, it looked like - had gathered at the foot of the Tower, but they were too far away to be consequential. “I realized I couldn’t be objective about it, and I had too keep a cool head to be able to continue.” 

Adrien swallowed. “You did what you had to do,” he said. “I understand. The fight is most important. Keeping Paris safe - that’s number one.” 

“I wish it wasn’t sometimes,” Ladybug whispered. “I wish - I wish I could be selfish.”

Adrien reached out slowly, slipping his hand into Ladybug’s. “Hey,” he said. “I promise it’s almost over.” He squeezed her hand. 

“You can’t know that,” she said. 

“I do, I promise,” he said. “Let me prove it. Hawkmoth is Gabriel Agreste.” The words came out easier than he thought they would.

She stiffened next to him. “What? No, he’s not.” 

Adrien bit the inside of his cheek briefly. “He is, I promise,” he said. “If you go after him, you’ll find your Chat Noir. And Chloe Bourgeois is Queen Bee.” 

Ladybug shook her head. “Who’s Queen Bee?” 

“Ah,” he said, pulling his hand away. “That answers my question. I better go sort that, then.” 

“Chat,” she started. 

“I’m not your Chat Noir,” Adrien said. “He’s probably still out there. Gabriel Agreste will have him.” 

“How can you know that?”

“Oh, I’m a time traveler,” he said breezily. “Turns out that’s my miraculous power. I had it the whole time - crazy, right?” 

Ladybug just stared at him. 

“I know how it sounds,” he said. “But, you know, it was always weird how I didn’t have a miraculous power, right? I mean, you have miraculous ladybug, and I have miraculous chat noir -” his left hand started glowing. “Oh, crap.” 

“Whoa,” Ladybug said. 

Two clanging thuds echoed around the Tower, and Rena Rouge landed immediately on his other side. “Whoa,” she said loudly. “That’s not cataclysm.” 

Adrien pushed himself one-handed to his feet, followed by Ladybug. “Oh hey, Alya,” he said. “I mean - wait, no. Rena. Crap, sorry.” He turned to Ladybug. “You didn’t hear that.” 

“It’s okay,” Ladybug said faintly. “I know.”

“Oh my gosh,” Rena Rouge said. “You’re the real Chat Noir, aren’t you? Have we met? I can’t believe it, everyone thought you were gone for good. What’s in your hand?”

Adrien grimaced. “I accidentally said it out loud,” he said. “It’s my miraculous power. It was...um, nice to meet you, Rena. I told Ladybug all the important things, anyways, so in the case that this timeline moves forward - I mean, maybe it will, I don’t know - you’ll be able to find your original Chat Noir, but I have to go fix things because I was sort of attached to my original timeline, and...sorry, I’m rambling.” 

Ladybug reached out and grabbed his forearm, squeezing. “You’re not leaving,” she ordered, steel in her voice. “Not by yourself. I told you all that, and you’re just going to leave?” 

He stared directly into her eyes - they were impossibly bluer than he remembered. “I told you I wasn’t your Chat Noir,” he said gently. “He’s waiting for you to go save him.” 

Ladybug wrinkled her nose. “At Gabriel Agreste’s?” 

“Yeah,” he said. “Trust me, okay?” 

She took a deep breath, slowly releasing his arm and stepping back. “Okay,” she said. 

“Okay,” Adrien answered, bouncing on his toes, reading his arm to swipe a whole in the space-time continuum. “Good luck with everything, if we don’t meet again.”

“I love you,” Ladybug said. 

Adrien froze, whipping around at her to stare with wide eyes. “W-wha-what?” 

“I promised myself I’d say it if I ever saw you again,” Ladybug said, her voice hard. “Now are you leaving or not?” 

Heart hammering inside his chest, Adrien slashed his arm mechanically to make a bright green rip. She - Ladybug loved him? Ladybug didn’t love him, Ladybug had never shown - they’d been partners, sure, but they’d disagreed as violently as they’d teamed up, and this wasn’t  _ even  _ his Ladybug, his Ladybug was frozen solid, and might be dead - 

“I love you too,” Adrien said, because he was brave. 

And then he jumped into his time portal before she could reply, because he wasn’t that brave. 

 

* * *

 

Marinette heaved a great sigh and pushed herself to her feet. “Well, no use crying over a spilled timeline. The only thing to do now is fix it.” 

“Fix it?” Nino echoed wildly. 

“I’m used to cleaning up that cat’s messes,” she answered with a teasing note in her voice, straightening her pigtails. “I’ve taken a million akumas, I’m sure I can do one lousy lich.” She raised her hand so the ring was right in front of her new kwami and shouted, “Plagg, spots on!” 

Plagg stared at her and crossed his tiny arms. 

“Um, tail on?” Marinette asked. “Ears on?” Plagg’s eyes narrowed. “Bell on?” 

“You’re still recovering from nearly freezing to death this morning,” Plagg said. “You can’t handle this alone.”

“I would love to have teammates,” Marinette said. “I promise, as soon as you let me transform, I am going to go rescue Chat from whatever weird timeline he’s stranded himself in and then I’m going to de-akumatize Queenie -”

_ -Chloe Bourgeois, tears streaming down her face, blocking a purple butterfly with her bare hand- _

She shook herself. “And we’re all going to be okay,” she said quietly. “Noir on.” 

Plagg, still not going into the ring, zoomed closer to Marinette’s face to take up almost her whole vision, and then stared pointedly over at Nino. “Take the boy with you,” he said. “For protection.” 

“Nino?” Marinette asked. 

“Me?” Nino echoed. “No offense, Mr. Plagg, uh, sir, but I don’t exactly have a lot of superhero experience.” 

“Chat Noir liked you,” Plagg said shortly. 

“What?” Marinette and Nino asked in unison. 

“Chat Noir liked you a whole lot,” Plagg said. “He trusted you with Ladybug’s safety. You’re not going to duck out on him now, are you?”

“No, of course not,” Nino said. 

Master Fu stepped forward. “You need protection,” he said. “You need a guardian, Ladybug.” He slide a band of cords with a green decorative piece off of his wrist and held it out to Nino. “The turtle miraculous has long served for the protection of the others. I trust you will use it wisely, and serve as a proper guardian to Ladybug.” 

Nino’s eyes went as wide as saucers. “Dude,” he whispered, startling even worse when Wayzz flew forward and bobbed his head in Nino’s direction. “Oh, hey. You - you must be the turtle kwami, right? It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, uh…” 

“Wayzz,” he chirped. “It is a pleasure to meet you too. Dude.” He blinked, considering. “That is a new word for me.”

“You used it perfectly,” Nino said. 

Wayzz beamed. “My transformation phrase is Shell On.” 

Marinette took this opportunity to glare at Plagg. “Look at that,” she muttered. “A transformation phrase.” 

“Chat Noir is nice to me, you know,” Plagg said idly.   

“Chat Noir needs rescuing,” Marinette said. 

“Claws out.” 

She nodded, a grin spreading across her face. “It’s perfect. Plagg, claws out!!!”

The ring was a different weight, but the transformation magic fell just the same across her body. She reveled in the feeling as the magic embraced her like an old friend - she was a hundred times faster, a thousand times stronger. Across from her, Nino took his cue and started to transform himself. 

She blinked as the mask and ears settled into place on her head, the last thing she’d added in this transformation. Her hair felt different, like Plagg had pulled her pigtails up to the top of her head to compliment the cat ears. She glanced down at herself - the suit was largely the same as Chat’s, but her boots rose higher, and her ankle and wrist guards were reduced to just silver decorations. The bell had been replaced with a silver bow. 

“Cute,” she muttered to herself, spinning around to catch a glimpse of her tail. She could barely feel it, but at the same time it seemed incredibly stabilizing. 

Across from her, Nino blinking out from behind yellow goggles at his own outfit. “Whoa,” he said. “Ladybug, this is wicked.” 

She laughed, feeling for the first time since she’d woken up like she had control of the situation back. “Yeah, it is. Ready to go cleanse a Lich, ah - what do you want to call yourself?” 

He pulled a shield-shell out from behind his back. “Carapace sounds good. Ready when you are, Ladybug.” 

She pulled out the baton resting on the small of her back. “Time to save Paris,” she said, and jumped out Master Fu’s door. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this was an indulgent angst chapter!!! I'm sorry for the long wait - on the bright side, this fic is almost completed. Thank you for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first forray into the ML fandom and clearly I also need all the help I can get. Please let me know your thoughts!


End file.
